Main Line rowers shine at SRAA Nationals

Several Main Line crew clubs – Radnor, Agnes Irwin, Haverford School and Lower Merion – made their mark at the SRAA (Scholastic Rowing Association of America) Nationals competition held May 27-28 in Nashport, Ohio.

Radnor Crew Club sent five boats to the SRAA Nationals – the Radnor Women’s Freshman 8, Women’s Lightweight 4, Women’s Second V8+, Women’s Varsity 8 and the Men’s Lightweight 8+ all qualified for the annual scholastic championship regatta.

The Radnor Men’s Lightweight 8+ (Noah Morris, Aidan Donnelly, Stephen Ching, Drew Addis, Bobby Subak, Ryan Borowski, Willem McGee, Pranav Gaddameedi and coxswain Zach Pepper) finished a strong second in their time trial heat with a time of 4:41.39, earning them a spot in the Grand Final.  Shaving over seven seconds off their time, they earned a bronze medal in the Grand Final with a time of 4:34.28.  This is the first time a Radnor Men’s 8 boat has medaled at the SRAA National competition.

The Women’s Freshman 8+ (Katherine Bragdon, Abby Frishman, Olivia Zenouzi, Maddie Rubenstein, Caitlin Dressel, Amanda Vitt, Jenna Spray, Jaimee Getty and coxswain Jess Weitzmann), finished second in their heat in time trials allowing them to move to semi-finals.  They took second place in semis with a time of 5:31.26, earning them a spot in the Grand Final where they finished fifth overall with a time of 5:33.07.

The Women’s Lightweight 4+ (Ellisen Ching, Ainsley Macrone, Julia Wi, Amanda Magen and coxswain Courtney Zajac) finished fourth in their heat in time trials with a time of 6:18.03.  This earned them a spot in the semi-finals where they took fourth in their heat with a time of 6:02.67, shaving over 15 seconds off of their prelim time.

The Women’s Varsity 8+ (Olivia Chase, Olivia Robinson, Caroline Ressler, Nicole Vitt, Anna Duffy, Yunyun Gu, Jill Hughes, Sam Talucci and coxswain Cassidy Lorenz) finished fourth place in their heat in time trials with a time of 5:19.16 and did not advance.

The Women’s Varsity Second 8+ rowed by Katie Dolan, Liz Dustin, Josie Larkin, Kate McCulloch, Katie Gerber, Zoe Landry, Rebecca Modell, Gillian Sullivan and coxswain Julia Lunger, finished second in their heat in time trials, earning them a spot in the semi-finals.  In semis, they finished fifth in their heat with a time of 5:35.10.

The Agnes Irwin School’s (AIS) crew team launched three boats at the SRAA Nationals.

Following a second-place finish at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta just two weeks earlier, the JV 4x (Maya Brown-Hunt, Rose Lawrence, Lexi Short, Myka Thomas) turned in another impressive performance and earned gold medals in Ohio. After finishing first in Friday’s preliminary heat, the JV 4x raced to a gold medal finish in the Grand Final, five seconds ahead of silver medalists Skyline (Ann Arbor, MI) and over 13 seconds in front of the bronze medalists from Western Albemarle (Crozet, Va).

The other two AIS boats at this national regatta performed well against tough competition. Senior co-captain Anna Sophie Peters advanced to the semi-finals in the Varsity 1x by finishing fourth in the May 27 preliminary heat; she finished fifth in the May 28 semi-final heat, in which only the top three boats moved on to the Grand Final. The Freshmen 4x (Emma Bonner, Perry Maner, Sydney McCarthy, Sarah Yoh) raced twice on Saturday; they finished sixth in the morning’s preliminary heat and sixth in the Grand Final, just one second behind fifth-place Ridgewood (N.J.)

“The gold-medal performance by our JV quad was the perfect way to end what was a great season,” said AIS head coach Molly Lawrence. “We have a young team, with only two graduating seniors, so we’re excited to see what our student-athletes will do next year.”

For Haverford School, three of their five boats made it to the Grand Finals, and they brought home one gold and two silver medals.
The Freshman Quad remained undefeated all season and stayed that way fending off Belen Jesuit from Miami and Saratoga from New York in the finals. They are one of the first boats in a long time to win all three championships, Philadelphia City’s, Stotesbury Cup Regatta, and Nationals for the Fords. In the boat for Haverford were Luke Follman, Jeff Pendergast, Thomas Russell, and Nick Chimicles.
The Junior Four followed up its silver medal performance at the Stotesbury Cup with another at Nationals beating crews from Chicago, Canada, Florida, California, upstate New York, and the DC area. In the boat for Haverford were Joe O’Brien, Mike Boston, Davis Martinelli, Jeff Li, and Nelson Liu.
The Junior Quad also finished their season winning silver at Nationals. These guys raced two of the fastest boats in North America in their event the last two weekends in Ridley College from Canada and Saratoga from New York. Each race only losing by less than two seconds. They won City’s, silver at Stotesbury’s, and silver again at Nationals. In the boat for the Fords were Scott Zelov, David McKay, Tim Scheuritzel, and Will Pechet.
The Varsity Four was edged out of the Grand Finals by less than 1/2 a second and less than a few seconds separating first and foruth in the semis. These boys bounce back in the Petite Finals winning easily by open water. This was the last race for three seniors in the boat and it has been a great pleasure coaching them over the past four years. In the boat were Luke Green, Andrew Lengel, Andy Leith, Guy Wuollet, and Joe Block.

The Lower Merion crew team earned a third-place finish in the JV4+ at SRAA Nationals. The team included Kathryn Lockwood, Eva Nates, Jillian Rothstein, Mackenzie Beckman, Emma Spaeth and coach Liz Miller.