Main Line crews make their mark at Stotesbury Regatta
A number of Main Line high school crew teams made their mark at the annual Stotesbury Regatta on the Schuylkill River May 20-21. This was the 90th anniversary of the world’s largest high school regatta, as a total of 965 boats and 189 clubs from both the US and Canada arrived at the Schuylkill to compete for championship titles. What follows are the results, as sent to us by the Main Line teams:
Agnes Irwin
The Agnes Irwin School’s crew team launched seven boats at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, as 19 young women represented AIS in Friday’s time trials; three boats qualified for semi-finals, and one earned silver medals in Saturday afternoon’s finals.
The highlight of the day for AIS was the outstanding performance by the Junior Quad (Maya Brown-Hunt, Rose Lawrence, Lexi Short, Myka Thomas). After finishing second of 24 boats in Friday’s time trials, AIS took first in Saturday morning’s semi-final heat to earn a spot in the afternoon final. AIS looked strong from the start in the final, finishing second to Episcopal Dallas (TX) and 1.8 seconds ahead of local rival Conestoga.
The other top-performing boats for AIS were the Junior Double (Victoria Budike, Anna Cayley), which finished 13th of 29 boats in time trials and fourth in their semi-final heat, and the Senior Double (Alex Pinsk, Caroline Richardson), which finished 13th of 26 boats in time trials and fifth in their semi-final heat. Only the top two teams in the semi-final heats for these events advanced to finals.
“It is always an honor to participate in Stotesbury, the world’s oldest and largest high school regatta,” said AIS head coach Molly Lawrence. “The level of competition was extraordinary, with some of the best rowers from across the country vying for medals.”
Next up for the AIS crew team is the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Championships Regatta, slated for May 27-28 on Dillon Lake in Nashport, Ohio.
“We’ll have three boats racing in Ohio,” said Lawrence. “We’re excited for another opportunity to test our speed against some of the same opponents we faced this past weekend.”
Baldwin School
The Lightweight Double Sculls crew of bow, Zara Wenzinger, stroke, Olivia Lanchoney, earned silver medals. The junior crew had a spectacular race in a tough field comprised mostly of senior crews. Baldwin finished with a time of 5:41.84, just behind the winners Saratoga 5:38.67. Baldwin had previously defeated the Saratoga crew in the semi-final and had high hopes for winning the gold. However, Saratoga showed their true speed in the final. The girls were proud of their achievement and very happy they got to take home medals. They will return next spring as seniors with another shot at winning the title.
The Junior Quadruple Sculls crew of bow, Julia Love, 2, Hailey Barnett, 3, Gabrielle Alston, stroke, Caroline Kiser, finished in fourth place with a time of 5:24.90. They narrowly missed the medals by 2.76 seconds behind rivals Conestoga and 4.57 behind Agnes Irwin School. The crew consisted of mostly sophomores and showed vast improvement over the season.
The Senior Double Sculls crew of bow, Jasmine Greytok, stroke, Rachel Sutor, finished ninth place overall. Due to entry restrictions, the lightweight crew competed in an open weight event. In the time trial, the crew finished a solid 10th place in a field of 26 crews. The crew needed a top two finish in the semi-final to earn a spot in the final. They finished in fourth place with a time of 6:01.84. The coaches proudly cheered on Sutor, who raced her last race with Baldwin. The senior captain will head to Hamilton College this fall as a coxswain on the men’s squad. The Junior Double Sculls crew of bow, Caroline Buchner, stroke, Sally Chen, also advanced to the semi-finals. They placed sixth with a time of 6:25.83, finishing 17th in a field of 29.
The Junior Four crew of coxswain, Jane Bradley, bow, Maya Bindra, 2, Sanjana Dixit, 3, Caroline Sterman, stroke, Helen Ji, came in 59th place out of 73 boats. The crew finished ahead of local crews Episcopal Academy, Harriton, Moorestown, and Notre Dame Prep. In the Freshmen Quadruple Sculls, bow, Da’Naira Dent, 2, Juliet Paiva, 3, Jessica Shen, stroke, Jane Bai, had a season’s best performance of 5:59.67 and finished 9th place out of 11 boats. In the Senior Single, sophomore Tara McMahon placed 28th out of 35 with a time of 7:10.08. It was an impressive finish for McMahon, who is new single sculler.
Baldwin head coach Liesel Hud said, “Performing well at the largest high school regatta in the world requires amazing effort from the entire racing squad. We raced crews from as far away as Canada, California, Florida and Texas. Everyone pulled together and it made for some fine performances.”
Conestoga
Conestoga’s senior women’s quad made up of Emily Hompe (senior), Kate Hudson (junior), Laura Alcorn (junior) and Caroline Gosnear (senior) won Conestoga’s fifth Stotesbury Cup championship in as many years. The girls varsity quad was undefeated in time trials, semi finals, and ultimately the final race. Western Albermarle, their closet competitor, finished 2 1/2 seconds behind them while local rival Episcopal trailed by five seconds.
Earlier that day, the senior women’s double, made up of seniors Carly Robins and Laura Phelan, took silver behind St. Stephens & St. Agnes and ahead of Ridgewood.
The club’s junior quad, made up of Katherine Stanton (sophomore), Anna Green (junior) Leigh Burgess (sophomore) and Holly Culbert (sophomore), won a bronze medal finishing just behind local rival Agnes Irwin and five seconds behind Episcopal of Dallas.
Juniors Matt Balch and Julius Neubig rowed their men’s lightweight double to a silver medal behind Canadian entry Denis Morris. The girls freshman quad of Abigail Lewis, Blair Kennedy, Elaina Lindquist and Natalia Bertolotti won their event and were awarded the Conestoga Crew Club Past President’s trophy. This was the third time that Conestoga has won the trophy that they sponsored at the regatta.
Conestoga’s boys freshman quad was also victorious – the crew of Sam Nalbone, Shane Connell, Robert Molsbergen and Harvey Sowerbutts finished just over a second behind Haverford and four seconds ahead of Episcopal of Dallas. The team is off for the Memorial Day weekend, and will travel to St. Catharines Ontario for the Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association (CSSRA) championship on June 3 – 5.
Episcopal Academy
Episcopal Academy entered nine boats at Stotesbury. Three EA boats advanced to finals, all reaching the awards dock.
Radnor
The Radnor girls fielded five boats in time trials, four moved on to semi finals, and one competed in the final event. The Radnor boys fielded five boats in time trials with one moving on to the finals.
The Radnor Girls JV4, comprised of Sally Dolan, Mackenzie Jones, Joanna Vines, Chloe Hawkins and coxswain Chloe Kerpius, competed in the time trial and finished 54th out of 70 entries in the time trial.
The Girls Freshman 8 (Katherine Bragdon, Maddie Rubenstein, Caitlin Dressel, Abby Frishman, Sammy Cohen, Amanda Vitt, Jenna Spray, Jaimee Getty and coxswain Melissa Hunn), finished eighth out of 50 (5:17.92) in the time trial, to earn them a spot in semi-finals where they were third in their heat at 5:22.43. The Radnor Girls Lightweight 8 (Olivia Zenouzi, Tessa Kilby, Ellisen Ching, Ainsley Macrone, Lexi Fogel, Amanda Magen, Elly Conklyn, Julia Wi and coxswain Courtney Zajac) finished ninth out of 14 boats to qualify for semis, where they finished fourth in their heat, dropping nine seconds from prelim time.
The Girls Varsity 8 (Olivia Chase, Olivia Robinson, Caroline Ressler, Nicole Vitt, Anna Duffy, Yunyun Gu, Jill Hughes, Sam Talucci and coxswain Cassidy Lorenz) finished 17th out of 32 in the time trial, with a time of 5:24.05, to qualify for semi finals, where they were sixth in their heat at 5:18.06.
The Girls 2V8 (Katie Dolan, Liz Dustin, Josie Larkin, Kate McCulloch, Katie Gerber, Camille Mulder, Rebecca Modell, Gillian Sullivan and coxswain Julia Lunger), finished fourth out of 17 boats in prelims with 5:26.30 to move them on to semis, where they dropped eight seconds to finish third in their heat (5:18.46) and qualifying them for the final event. In the final, they finished fourth overall, dropping another six seconds to finish in 5:12.43.
The Radnor Boys JV4 (Brett Lyons, Greg McNicholas, Will Vaughn, Jake Craig and coxswain John Talucci) finished 37th out of 65 boats in the time trials on Friday. The Boys JV8 rowed by JW O’Riordan, Stefan Neagoe, Patrick Kaper, Jack Boudreau, Braeden Meandro, Alistair Douglas, Sean O’Riordan, Andrew Davis and coxswain Noah Pepper, finished 45th in prelims with a time of 5:17.19.
The Radnor Lightweight 8+ (Noah Morris, Aidan Donnelly, Stephen Ching, Drew Addis, Bobby Subak, Ryan Borowski, Willem McGee, Pranav Gaddameedi and coxswain Zach Pepper) finished fourth in time trials, earning them a spot in the finals. In the final competition, they took fourth place with a time of 4:28.69 just shy of third place.
The Boys Lightweight 4+ (Zahi Shalev, Matt Kellett, Tommy Ciatto, Ryan Conklyn and coxswain Bella Hain) finished 20th out of 40 boats with a time of 5:31.66.
The Radnor Girls’ V8, 2V8, Freshman 8, Lightweight 4 boats and the Radnor Boys Lightweight 8 will all compete May 26-27 in the SRAA National Championship Regatta in Zanesville, Ohio.
