Lower Merion crew captures gold medal at SRAA Nationals

A total of 27 Lower Merion crew athletes qualified to race in five boats at the National Championship Regatta of the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) this past weekend on the Cooper River in Camden.
Four LM Crew boats advanced to the semi-finals with the Girls JV 4+ following up their wins at the City Champs and Stotesbury regattas with an open water finish and National Championship title in their event.
The Girls JV4+ (coxswain junior Minori Cohan, stroke sophomore Annika Edwards, junior Eva Nates, junior Morgan Simpson and bow sophomore Valentina Frusone) demonstrated strong consistent rowing throughout the regatta, maintaining their first seed position through heats, semifinals and finals against 23 other crews from around the U.S. and capturing an open water first-place finish in the finals on Saturday with a time of 5:36.1, ahead of local Mount Saint Josephs crew in second (5:39.5) and GPS/McCallie crew from Chattanooga, Tenn. third (5:41.7).
The Girls Varsity Doubles team of stroke Sarah Wilson-Leslie and bow Mackenzie Beckman raced 16 other crews in their event and earned a semi-final berth with a time of 6:34.
Boys Varsity Doubles crew (stroke Maxwell Koerner and bow Hunter McHenry) earned their semi-final position against 16 other teams with a time of 5:33.7.
The Girls JV 8 (coxswain Maia Model, stroke Kelsey Stanton, Ella Garcia, Emma Spaeth, Emma Mernagh, Kerren Matthews, Mason Famiglio, Gwen McMullen and bow Emma Trentacoste) rowed strong against 18 opposing teams into the semi-finals with a time of 5:20.2.
The Boys JV8 (coxswain David Sher, stroke Noel Stach, Carlo Favaro, Aurimas Balciunas, Justin Wootton, Juan Park, Luke Birch, Alexander Kerekes and bow Elijah Miller-Wilson) narrowly missed a semi-final spot in a field of 24 teams with a time of 4:55.3.