Main Line crew teams make their mark at Nationals, Stotesbury

Main Line high school crew teams made their mark at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Championship Regatta on Dillon Lake in Zanesville, Ohio May 24-25, and at the Stotesbury Regatta May 17-18 on the Schuylkill River. Here’s a look at how the Main Line teams performed (the following squads reported their results to Main Line Media News sports – badams@mainlinemedianews.com):

Agnes Irwin
At the SRAA National Championship Regatta, the Owls raced three boats, led by the Girls Freshman Quad, which won a silver medal.
The Girls Freshman Quad of Chloe Saulnier, Caroline O’Mara, Ashlyn Phelan and Julia van der Zwan battled the entire finals race with the crews from Seattle Prep, Augustine Classical, and Niskayuna. The race came down to the final 250-meter sprint, where Seattle Prep edge out a mere 1.6 second lead to take victory, leaving the Agnes Irwin girls in second place.
“The girls had a great race,” said Agnes Irwin assistant coach Charles Jordan. “They fought hard from the start and they should be very proud of their performance. All season this boat has proven their talent and speed with great results [second at Cities, first at Stotesbury, and second at SRAA Nationals].”
The Lightweight Double of senior Anisah Thomas and junior Madeline Briddell finished a strong fourth in the final, with Conestoga first, Albemarle second, and Western Albemarle third.
“Each race they improved and got faster and faster,” said AIS assistant coach Mary O’Neill. “Anisah and Madeline should be very happy with the result, they had a great race and season against very tough competition.”
Agnes Irwin also raced in the Varsity Single category with junior Peyton Bond. Since there were 15 entries in this division, Bond needed to finish at least second in her heat in order to qualify for the final, but she finished in third place with a time of 6:28, ten seconds behind the leader.
At the Stotesbury Regatta, Agnes Irwin raced five crews and brought home the gold in the Freshman Quad category.
In the Freshman Quad final, the quartet of Chloe Saulnier, Caroline O’Mara, Ashlyn Phelan and Julia van der Zwan got off to a quick start battling with the crew from Ridgewood for the majority of the race. Coming in to the last 500 meters of the race, the Agnes Irwin girls picked up the pace and started edging out a lead. The quad crossed the line first with a time of 5:35, three seconds clear of second place Ridgewood, and seven seconds clear of third place finisher Springside Chestnut Hill.
Peyton Bond finished seventh in the Senior Single event, by virtue of winning the Petite Final, which decided positions 7-12, with a time of 6:22.

Baldwin School
At the Stotesbury Regatta, the Senior Double (bow, Jane Bai, stroke, Stephanie Hulme) achieved a bronze medal finish. The crew finished with a time of 6:00.32, ahead of Sacred Heart and Strath Haven. Bai, a senior captain on the team, will continue rowing at MIT this fall.
The Junior Quad (bow, Jada Williams, 2, Mimi Salgado, 3, Sammy Baron, stroke, Jasmine Bell) finished fifth in their semifinal and 10th overall.
The Junior Double (bow, Grace Kirwan, stroke, Ava Rosenberger) also finished fifth in their semifinal and 10th overall.

Conestoga
Conestoga qualified nine boats for SRAA Nationals, due to the club’s success at PSRA City Championships. Only four other clubs (there were 156 clubs at SRAA Nationals from across the United States and Canada) had more boats. Of Conestoga’s nine boats, five made it to finals and four earned medals.
Winning the gold medal was the Girls Lightweight Double of Annie Dudrear and Maggie Gosnear; the Girl’s Varsity 4X of Natalia Bertolotti, Blair Kennedy, Victoria Budike, and Abigail Lewis; the Boy’s Varsity 4X or Kale Wiley, Andrew McLellan, Max Harmon, and Brenton Molsbergen.
Winning the silver medal was the Boy’s Varsity Double of Shane Connell and Cole Fogarty.
The Boys Freshman 4X earned a bid in the finals and finished sixth: Jack Barausky, Alex Stern, Alex McLoughlin, and Will Riggs.
At the Stotesbury Regatta, Conestoga, which had 12 entries including 26 athletes, won three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal.
Gold medals were earned by the undefeated Girls Lightweight 2X (Maggie Gosnear and Annie Dudrear), the undefeated Boys Varsity 2X (Shane Connell and Cole Fogarty) and the Boys Varsity 4X (Brenton Molsbergen, Max Harmon, Andrew McLellan, Kale Wiley).
This marked the first time that the Conestoga Boys Varsity 2X won the gold medal at Stotesbury. The Girls Lightweight 2X received the Lawrence Kieffer Trophy for finishing first – the first time Conestoga had received this trophy in 10 years. This also was the first Stotesbury gold medal earned by the Conestoga Boys Varsity 4X in seven years.
Silver medals went to the Girls Varsity (Natalia Bertolotti, Blair Kennedy, Victoria Budike, Abigail Lewis) and Boys JV 4X: (Zack Miles, Denis Corr, Kosta Markovic, Kevin Connell).
A bronze medal was earned by the Girls JV 4X (Savanna Jacovini, Ella Ottensman, Lily Bielinski, Annie Stuber).

Episcopal Academy
At the Stotesbury Regatta, EA had three boats place in the Championship finals with the Boys Varsity 4+ medaling in their race.
The Boys Varsity 4+, (stroke – Billy Stavropoulos, Peter Woodville, Ian Reape, Owen Maier and coxswain Juliana DiCarlo) finished second (4:58.04)
The Girls JV 4x (stroke – Lily Haupt, Mickey Rymal, Natalie Johnston and Mary Grace Konopka) placed fifth in the championship finals (5:21.17).
The EA Boys JV4+ (stroke – Jack Rebillard, Arya Venugopalan, Chase Anderson, Will Konopka and coxswain Hollis du Pont) raced in the time trials placing seventh out of 60 boats with a time of 5:13.87, which advanced them to semifinals, where they placed first in the first heat (5:07.00) which advanced them to finals. In the championship finals, the EA boys placed fifth (4:54.50).
In other EA results, the Girls Varsity 4+ (stroke – Brooke Kraftson, Morgan Gantt, Margot LeRoux, Allison Lee, coxswain Alyssa Sheffy) finished eighth in the time trials out of a field of 57 boats (5:47.27) and advanced to semifinals, where they placed third in their heat with a time of 5:19.95.
The Girls’ Freshman 4x (stroke – Ashley Tan, Emmie O’Neill, Grace Bomberger, Ella Jordan) placed ninth in the time trials (6:28.05) and advanced to semifinals where they placed fourth in their heat with a time of 6:03.31.
The Boys JV 4x (stroke – Max Levinson, Charlie Barton, Jimmy Bruder and Aedan Yohannan) placed eighth in the time trials out of 21 boats with a time of 5:22.48, and advanced to semifinals, where they placed fifth in their heat with a time of 4:55.65.

Lower Merion

At the SRAA National Regatta in Ohio, four Lower Merion crew boats (Girls V4+, Girls JV8+, Boys JV8+, Girls Frosh 8+) qualified to compete.
The Varsity Girls 4+ earned a bronze medal in their race. The Varsity Girls 4+ crew included Ella Garcia, Valentina Frusone, Faye Berry, Dahlia Levine and Annika Edwards. Mollie Katzen was an alternate.
The Lower Merion Freshman Girls 8+, which included Ashytyn Webb, Emma Cloud, Page Cloud, Maya Kraidy, Jinx Allison, Emma Liu, Annie Cloud, Caroline Burchette, Sonia Laby (coxswain), Lila Traynor (alternate) amd Macy Bronte (alternate) advanced to semifinals. The crew included a set of triplets in Emma Cloud, Page Cloud and Annie Cloud.
The Girls JV 8+ included Théa Kerekes, MJ Pennington, Jena Dessain, Alex Haas, Rose Leinhauser, Jane Spencer, Jordan Anderson, Maeve Donoghue and Ally Cooper (coxswain).
The Boys JV8+ included Aidan Barr Bono, Charlie Berman, Zeke Kelz, Bruno Kraidy, Maximus Forster, Ben Lustig, Paul DeSouza, Julius Murphy, Brad Wootton (coxswain) and Isaac Berman (alternate).

Radnor
The Girls Lightweight Varsity 8+ won silver at the SRAA National Championships and became the first Radnor Crew since 2011 to medal in City Championships, The Stotesbury Cup and SRAAs in the same year. This was the final race of head coach Margaret Gordon’s coaching career at Radnor. Each of the last four years that Gordon has coached the Radnor Girls Crew Club, four or five boats have qualified for the National Championships. This year was no exception. The Radnor Girls Crew Club sent four boats, advancing the Girls JV 8+ to the semi-finals and the Girls Lightweight Varsity 8+ to the finals.
The Girls Lightweight Varsity 8+ consisting of coxswain Jessica Weitzman, stroke Jenna Spray, Amanda Vitt, Lexi Fogel, Ali Bauer, Clare McDonald, Isabella DiGiacomo, Sophia Hernandez and Tova Tachau, in an all-out sprint, captured silver in the last 100 meters. Their time of 5:20 was the fastest Radnor time of the day and less than half a second ahead of last year’s silver medalist, Nardin, from Buffalo, N.Y.
The Girls JV 8+ consisting of coxswain Courtney Gallagher, stroke Avery VanDusen, Tara Osborne, Abby Chapin, Jill Getty, Brighton Dewitt, Chloe Sakowski, Taylor Stearns and Maddie Johnson finished fifth in the semifinals with a time of 5:31.
The Girls JV 4+ consisting of coxswain Caroline Spaniel, stroke Lindsay Eggert, Kylie Slupe, Meghan Subak and Audrey Margolies finished fifth in their heat with a time of 6:13.
The Girls Varsity 4+ consisting of coxswain Melissa Hunn, stroke Olivia Zenouzi, Megan Frei, Abby Frishman and Sammy Cohen finished fourth in their heat with a time of 6:13.
At the Stotesbury Regatta, of the six Radnor girls boats entered, four advanced to the semifinals and one advanced to the finals.
The Girls Lightweight 8+ consisting of coxswain Jessica Weitzman, stroke Jenna Spray, Amanda Vitt, Lexi Fogel, Ali Bauer, Clare McDonald, Isabella DiGiacomo, Sophia Hernandez and Tova Tachau held second throughout their final and fended off a furious sprint by Merion Mercy to garner silver by the slimmest of margins – .03 seconds – with a time of 04:49.74.
The Girls Junior 8+ consisting of coxswain Courtney Gallagher, stroke Avery VanDusen, Tara Osborne, Abby Chapin, Jill Getty, Brighton Dewitt, Chloe Sakowski, Taylor Stearns and Maddie Johnson finished sixth in a time trial with 43 boats and third in the semifinal, missing the final by less than two seconds with a time of 04:54.73.