Main Line rowers shine at City Championships
Philadelphia – A number of Main Line high school crews performed well at the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association (PSRA) City Championships on the Schuylkill River May 6-7.
What follows are the local teams’ results, as submitted to Main Line Media News:
Agnes Irwin
In its most successful performance at City Championships in recent history, Agnes Irwin School’s crew team advanced all seven of its entries to the final day of racing, with five AIS boats earning medals.
The highlight of the two-day regatta was the gold medal performance of the Girls’ Lightweight 4x (Maya Brown-Hunt, Gabby D’Arcangelo, Juliana Jaskot, Caroline Richardson), which finished by open water ahead of Shipley, its closest competitor.
Two AIS boats earned silver medals. The Girls’ Freshman 4x (Peyton Bond, Madeline Briddell, Ella Haines, Eliza Pendergast) raced to a second place finish in Sunday’s final, just 4.82 seconds behind Conestoga and 12 seconds faster than third-place Ridgewood (NJ).
In one of the most exciting races of the day, the JV 4x (Emma Bonner, Anna Cayley, Rose Lawrence, Lexi Short) finished second to Conestoga by a fraction of a second and 7.08 seconds ahead of Baldwin.
Bronze medals were awarded to two other AIS boats. The Girl’ Gig/Novice 1x (Jazmyn Knight), in her very first regatta, finished third, 0.26 seconds ahead of Baldwin.
The Girls’ Freshman/Novice 2x (Shreya Mathawan, Naya Weems) took third behind Shipley and Baldwin.
The Girls’ JV 4+ (Perry Maner, Sydney McCarthy, Anisah Thomas, Cameron Zuccarini and coxswain Rosie Sokoll), racing together for the first time, finished 10th of 23 boats in Saturday’s time trials to earn a spot in one of the semi-finals, in which they were fourth, just 1.84 seconds behind Harriton and a place in the finals.
The Girls’ JV 2x (Carson Heward, Sarah Yoh) also advanced to finals with a fourth-place finish in time trials. They were fourth in the finals, 15.83 seconds behind the bronze medalists from Dwight-Englewood (NJ) and 2.77 seconds ahead of Baldwin.
Baldwin School
The Lightweight Double of bow Zara Wenzinger and stroke Olivia Lanchoney, won the title of city champions with a time of 5:37, triumphing over rivals Germantown Friends School. GFS had narrowly bested the previously undefeated Baldwin boat by 0.7 seconds in Saturday’s time trial, prompting the Baldwin crew to take an aggressive lead early in their final and carry the momentum all the way down the course. The lightweight crew earned an automatic bid to the SRAA National Championships.
The Varsity Double of bow Jasmine Greytok and stroke Caroline Kiser, had a thrilling finish. Sitting even with three other crews as they entered the final 500 meters of the course, Baldwin was locked in a battle for a spot on the podium. Ridgewood and Episcopal Academy finally pulled away, leaving Baldwin to fight it out with Conestoga for third. In a photo finish, Baldwin placed third over Conestoga for the bronze medal by 0.20 seconds.
The Junior Varsity Quad of bow, Julia Love, 2 Tara McMahon, 3 Jane Bai, and stroke Hailey Barnett, finished third in a tough field. Battling it out against Episcopal Academy, the Baldwin quad turned in a strong third place finish with a time of 5:43.8.
The Freshmen/Novice Double of bow Avalon Rosenberger and stroke Samantha Baron, took a trip to the meals dock finishing second with a time of 7:10.4.
The Baldwin Novice Single sculler, Jada Williams, just missed a podium finish at her first City Championships. Down in fourth place by more than a boat length coming into the final 250 meters, Williams’ sprint to the finish took her to within 0.2 seconds of third place finisher Agnes Irwin.
The Junior Varsity Double of bow Juliet Paiva and stroke Gabrielle Alston, finished fifth in the final with a time of 6:38.
The Varsity Four combination of coxswain Caroline Sterman, bow Maya Bindra, 2 Evie Wasson, 3 Da’Naira Dent, and stroke Jessica Shen, was Baldwin’s only entry not to make Sunday’s finals.
“We are incredibly proud of our athletes and all the hard work they have put in,” said Baldwin head coach Gabby Cutler. “To see their smiling faces on the awards dock is the most rewarding experience, one I hope we can repeat at the Stotesbury Cup and Nationals.”
Baldwin assistant coach Luke Rein was thrilled to see great racing from the novice and freshman boats: “They’re a very competitive group, they bring their intensity to every workout, and most of all, they enjoy what they’re doing and are always excited to improve.”
This year’s Cities continued Baldwin’s trend of increasing success in recent years, reflecting the team’s advance upwards in the PSRA league rankings since last year by qualifying three more boats this year than at the 2016 City Championships.
Conestoga
Conestoga Crew had an impressive showing with 16 boats entered in the regatta; the largest number of entries by a single team in Pennsylvania. Of the 75 schools competing, no other school had more entries except for Ridgewood Crew that also had 16 boats.
Twelve Conestoga Crew boats raced on day one of the two-day City Championships and all twelve boats advanced to Sunday.
Sunday started with Warren Zhao and Amir Zisling in the boys Junior Varsity 2x. In an extremely fast heat, the boys finished in fourth, 1.47 seconds behind third place Boys’ Latin and did not advance to the finals.
Edward Culbert raced in the boys Novice 1x and took an admirable fourth in a tough Freshman/Novice race.
In the following four Novice races, all four ‘Stoga boats took home medals. Freshman Joey Murray and Dawson Keyes took home silver in the Novice 2x.
Katherine Moir, Annie Studber, Lexi Bashe and Mira Harris finished second in the Girls Novice 4x. Boys Novice 4x, Teddy Gieske, Michael Wilson, Michael Malarkey and Luca Barton finished third.
Winning the first gold medal of the day, the Girls Freshman 4x with Lily Bielinski, Annie Dudrear, Maggie Gosnear and Isobel Fellows finished 4.82 seconds ahead of Agnes Irwin.
In the final Freshman race of the day, the Boys 4x fought a close race. Zachary Miles, Konstantin Markovic, Chase Ledwith and Marcos Dyer finished fifth, less than eight seconds behind first place Haddon Township.
Capturing the second gold of the day, Abigail Lewis, Blair Kennedy, Elena Lindquist and Katherine Stanton, in the undefeated Girls Junior Varsity 4x, finished 0.58 seconds ahead of Agnes Irwin.
The boys Junior Varsity 4x, with Brenton Molsbergen, Cole Fogarty, Michael Medica and Evan Cain finished third, taking home a bronze.
The two lightweight doubles both finished fourth in their respective races. In the girl’s event, Anna Green and Natalia Bertolotti finished 2.17 seconds behind third place Ridgewood. In the boy’s boat, Liam Bobber and Frank Wang finished 8.06 seconds behind first place Malvern Prep in a competitive race.
Leo Draper, Sam Nalbone, Kale Wiley and Drew Tada came in first place in the Boys Lightweight 4x with a winning time of 4:55.50 beating Germantown Friends and Roman Catholic.
Holly Culbert and Leigh Burgess finished in fourth in a heart-pounding Girls Varsity 2x race, 0.20 seconds behind Baldwin and 6.76 seconds off first place. The Boys Varsity 2x followed immediately after and was equally as exciting. Shane Connell and Matt Balch finished in third place taking home a bronze medal.
In the last two races of the day, Conestoga’s Varsity quads both medaled.
Victoria Budike, Laura Alcorn, Kate Hudson and Kate Concannon took home gold with a winning time of 5:19.02, beating Ridgewood by 2.11 seconds.
In the fastest race of the day, Griffin Hamilton, Max Amsterdam, Connor Sullivan and Zach Simpson took second place with a time of 4:38.64. Their boat finished 2.84 seconds behind Malvern Prep and 0.25 seconds ahead of Haddon Township.
Of the 64 schools that took home medals, Conestoga Crew Club finished in first place among all the sculling teams at the City Championships and second place overall in the Team Points count.
Episcopal Academy
The crew program at Episcopal Academy has been around for some time and the Churchmen have won numerous championships, but never the boys varsity 8+ race at the Philadelphia City Championships. They took care of that Sunday on the Schuylkill.
Will Purtill (stroke), Nick Horbowy, Thomas Woodville, Peter LeRoux, Kyle Hogan, Harry Pusey, Colson Andrews, Tim Baker and Schuyler Kresge (coxswain) edged La Salle to win the final race of the day and the boys varsity 8+ for the first time in program history. The Churchmen finished in 4:19.19, 0.58 seconds ahead of the Explorers.
That was the third top-three finish of the day for EA. Heidi Zirnkilton and Lizzie Bow were second in the Girls Varsity 2x race (6:07.89), while Shannon Conlin, Brooke Baxter, Rachel Barber and Josephine Konopka were third in the Girls Varsity 4x (5:28.10).
The Episcopal Academy entered 11 boats in the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association’s City Championships. Episcopal entered three Novice boats, four JV boats and four Varsity boats in the final PSRA event of the spring 2017 season.
The Girls Novice 8 +, composed of stroke Natalie Horbowy; Lacey Rivera; Rae Keffer-Scharf; Natalie Johnston; Allison Lee; Michaela Rymal; Casey Kinniry; Katie Baker and cox Julia Di Carlo, which placed second (6:25.70) and easily advanced to the finals.
The Girls JV 4 X boat, composed of stroke Alexandra Peyton; Morgan Gantt; Cat Spellman and bow Brooke Kraftson, placed fourth with a time of 6:14.22, despite a bad lane placement and heavy winds during their race, and advanced to the semifinals.
The Boys JV 8+, composed of stroke Luke Giordano; Nick Peyton; Alex Peters; McKee Bond; Peter Zirnkilton; Jake Landaiche; Drew Landaiche; Sky Sices and cox Robbie Copit, boat placed 12th with a time of 5:30.86 and advanced to the semi-finals.
The Girls Varsity 2 X, compsoed of stroke Heidi Zirnkilton and bow Lizzie King, placed second with a time of 6:18.46 and easily advanced to the finals.
The Boys Varsity 8 + of stroke Will Purtill; Nick Horbowy; Thomas Woodville; Peter LeRoux; Kyle Hogan; Harry Pusey; Colson Andrews; Tim Baker and cox Schuyler Kresge placed third with a time of 4:39.85, and easily advanced to the finals.
Overall it was a standout performance by Episcopal on May 6, with six of their 11 entries advancing to the following day’s competition.
The Boys JV 8+, composed of stroke Luke Giordano; Nick Peyton; Alex Peters; McKee Bond; Peter Zirnkilton; Jake Landaiche; Drew Landaiche; Sky Sices and cox Robbie Copit, placed fifth in their heat in semifinals with a time of 5:23.50.
The Girls Novice 8 +, made up of stroke Natalie Horbowy; Lacey Rivera; Rae Keffer-Scharf; Natalie Johnston; Allison Lee; Michaela Rymal; Casey Kinniry; Katie Baker and cox Julia Di Carlo, placed sixth in finals with a time of 7:00.95.
The Girls JV 4 X, comprised of stroke Alexandra Peyton; Morgan Gantt; Cat Spellman and bow Brooke Kraftson, placed fourth with a time of 5:47.26.
Lower Merion
Five Lower Merion boats advanced to the finals on Sunday: Boys/Gig Novice 1x with Jake Nibauer; Girls JV 4+ with Annika Edwards, Eva Nates, Morgan Simpson, Valentina Frusone and Minori Cohen(cox); Boys JV8+ with Aurimas Balciunas, Luke Birch, Noel Stach, Carolo Favara, Justin Wooton, Juan Park, Alexander Kerekes, Eli Miller-Wilson and David Sher (cox) and the Girls V2x with Sarah Wilson-Leslie and Mackenzie Beckman; the Boys 2- with Kevin Aspesi and Jarod Estacio.
The Girls JV 4+ soared into first place for their heat, semi and final races and beat 23 other teams in the competition by a wide margin to receive medals.
Malvern Prep
Malvern sculled to four gold medals at the City Championships.
Before the City Championships officially began, the team accepted the Horvat Memorial Trophy for the Men’s Sculling Points Champion. On May 6-7, all Malvern rowers qualified for the “finals” in their respective races so the afternoon of May 7 was filled with anticipation as each crew hit the water.
Malvern struck gold first with the JV 2x pairing of Ben Mankowski and AJ Wirtel finishing first, 3.8 seconds ahead of Holy Spirit.
About an hour later, the Lightweight duo of Pat Keenan and Sean Ward fought off a challenge from Shipley to win gold by .49 seconds.
In the Varsity 2x, Christian Franck and Andre Quintilianti claimed the gold, winning by 4.8 seconds over Germantown Academy.
To top off the day, the Varsity 4x of Johnny McGlinn, Drew Brady, Casey Lauder and Walter Koch struck gold by besting Conestoga by 2.8 seconds.
Not to be outdone by the upper classmen, the Freshman crews held their own with very respectable finishes in their first championship races.
In the Freshman/Novice 2x, the pair of Charlie Fish and Mani Venkatesh had a solid third place finish for the bronze medal, finishing 1.1 seconds behind Conestoga. In the Freshman 4x Final, the quad of CK Mao, Aidan Gallagher, Jason Kennedy and Edmund Park claimed the bronze, finishing 1.6 seconds behind second place Haverford.
In the JV 1X race, Thomas Park finished in fifth place, six seconds behind Haddon Township.
Merion Mercy Academy
In the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association (PSRA) City Championships, Merion Mercy’s Lightweight 8+ and JV8+ both earned Silver, senior Morgan Sherman made Merion Mercy rowing history as MMA’s first Varsity 1x Rower, and V4+ won Gold and took home the Michael L. Brown Trophy. The V4+ crew consisted of Morgan Lamb, Emma Braun, Cece Wendel, Cate Schrieber, and Jeanne McGill.
Radnor
Radnor boys had two boats medal at the PSRA City Championships The Varsity 2+, comprised of Mike Fitzpatrick and Ben Palmer, took the gold with a time of 5:54.
The JV4+, which included Brett Lyons, Zach Taylor, Greg McNicholas, Chetin Atillasoy and coxswain Evie Bond placed second overall with a time of 5:11.
The Lightweight 4+ which included Willem McGee, Ryan Conklyn, Braedon Meandro, Tommy Ciatto and coxswain Noah Pepper made their respective semi-final race May 7 and finished fourth overall with a time of 5:07.
Racing in the finals May 7 were the Varsity 2+, comprised of Ben Webster and Sam Bupp, who finished fifth overall. The Varsity 4+, which included Bob Subak, Milo Wilton, Noah Morris, Matt Palmer and coxswain Zahi Shalev finished sixth overall with a time of 5:17.
Radnor girls entered six boats in the two-day regatta; four advanced to semis and/or finals, and the JV8+ boat earned a bronze medal for a successful weekend on the river.
The Freshman 8+ finished eighth overall, and included Lindsay Eggert, Erica MacCormick, Abby Chapin, Jill Getty, Taylor Stearns, Megan Frei, Kylie Slupe, Tara Osborne and coxswain Courtney Gallagher.
The bronze-medaling JV8+ boat, which finished third in semis and third overall, included Rebecca Modell, Ainsley Macrone, Katherine Bragdon, Liz Dustin, Sammy Cohen, Maddie Rubenstein, Ellisen Ching, Jenna Spray and coxswain Chloe Kerpius.
The V4+A, comprised of Anna Duffy, Katie Dolan, Kate McCulloch, Olivia Robinson and coxswain Julia Lunger, finished sixth in semis and sixth overall.
The V4+B, which include Katie Gerber, McKenzie Jones, Camille Mulder, Gillian Sullivan and coxswain Courtney Zajac, advanced to semis with a ninth place finish.
The Lightweight 8+ went straight to the final and finished fourth overall. Included in that boat were: Olivia Zenouzi, Jaimee Getty, Elly Conklyn, Amanda Vitt, Lexi Fogel, Tessa Kilby, Joanna Vines, Julia Wi, and coxswain Jess Weitzman.
Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart Crew cheered on five Boats at Philadelphia City Championships and took home gold and bronze medals to add to the celebration.
Sacred Heart Novices captured a bronze medal on the Novice Girls 4X. The boat included sophomore Natasha Karnoto, and freshmen Veronica Washco, Anya McDonnell and Emily Gorski.
The JV 2X gold medal was awarded to Dominique Marlin-Andrews and Bridget Bergan, who capitalized on the previous days’ first place finish.
On May 6, the JV Girls 2X of sophomore Dominique Marlin-Andrews and junior Bridget Bergan raced to a first place in their semi-final heat.
The LTWT Girls 2x Semi-final event included two Sacred Heart entries: Anna Carroll and Claire Friedlander, as well as Lucia Gargano and Marcella Marino, with Carroll and Friedlander advancing to the finals. The afternoon ended with senior Amanda Tolvaisa and junior Joan Costello racing in the Girls Varsity 2X.
Shipley
In the Girls Varsity Lightweight Double, Claudia Menziuso and Rachel Menziuso finished fifth in their time trial with a time of 6:53.5 moving directly to their Sunday final. In the final they finished in sixth place in a time of 6:31.5.
In the Girls Varsity Lightweight Quad, Savannah Naib, LaBria Wilson, Lila Saligman, Malenne Kelly finished in second place in a time of 5:46.4, receiving silver medals.
