“City’s” rowing medals for CHASS, GFS, PC

Posted 5/9/11

by Tom Utescher [caption id="attachment_5380" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Drawing away from the City Championships awards dock with their goal medals are the scullers in CHA’s freshman …

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“City’s” rowing medals for CHASS, GFS, PC

Posted

by Tom Utescher

[caption id="attachment_5380" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Drawing away from the City Championships awards dock with their goal medals are the scullers in CHA’s freshman double, Peter Anthony (left) and James Meadows. (Photo by Joshua Meadows)"][/caption]

The Chestnut Hill Academy/Springside School crew acquired a gold medal through two of its youngest members at the 2011 City Championships last Sunday, and there were a number of other medalists for the Blue Devils, Lions, and the Quakers of Penn Charter. In addition, Germantown Friends, with just three active rowers, managed to come away with a silver and a bronze medallion.

CHA freshmen Peter Anthony (stroke) and James Meadows clicked right away when they climbed in a double together at the start of the 2011 season. They continued to dominate their category at City’s, posting the first-place time in the qualifying head race (the six fastest boats in the qualifiers advanced to the finals in each category of the regatta), and then winning the final by almost four seconds over runner-up Roman Catholic.

More surprising were the results produced in this same category by GFS, a school with little rowing tradition. The Tigers’ tandem of Ethan Genyk (stroke) and Greg Goldstein were the second qualifiers and wound up with a bronze medal in the final. The only other GFS entry, sophomore Andrew Bair, was fourth in the head racing, then moved up to secure the silver medal in the finals of the JV single.

In addition to the gold in the freshman double, CHA won bronze medals in the varsity double (Laddy St. George (stroke), Zach Baron) and in the JV quad (John Olson (stroke), Drew Adubato, Mike Calistri, Carl Delacato). St. George and Baron raced one of three varsity doubles entered by Chestnut Hill, but they were the only qualifiers, ranking fifth. The JV quad had logged the third-best time in its head race.

Two novice singles for the Blue Devils both qualified, Will Elliott with the fourth time, and Jaime MacEachern sixth. The two changed positions in the final, MacEachern finishing just out of the medals in fourth place, and Elliott in the sixth spot.

The day did not begin well for the Springside Lions. Their first four entries were unable to qualify for the finals, with three of them missing the cut by just one place. The mood brightened when the varsity double turned in a sixth-place qualifying time for the Lions, who had two other boats go straight through to the finals due to a low number of entries in their events.

In the double, Victoria Iannarone (stroke) and Becca Chasar came in fifth in their final race, and Springside’s novice quad and varsity quad each earned a silver medal. The novice quartet (Amanda Price (stroke), Sanna Johnson, Maddie Canning, Mariel Soto-Reyes) came in behind Conestoga High School, a traditional sculling rival of Springside’s.

The varsity (Verity Walsh, Taylor Apostolico, Jen Sager, Anna Valciukas) beat out Conestoga for the silver medal, but could not quite catch another familiar foe, fellow Girls Inter-Ac League member Episcopal Academy. The week before in the Inter-Ac quad race, Springside ran into a glitch and dropped off the pace set by EA.

This time, the Lions almost pulled even alongside Peter’s Island late in the race, but the Churchwomen countered and were able to win by two seconds. Springside keeps getting closer to Episcopal, and will try to get over the hump either at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta or the scholastic nationals.

Penn Charter’s crew program, only a few years old in its current form, broke through to win a bronze medal last weekend. Moving straight into the finals without a qualifier, the girls novice quad (Hannah Kramer (stroke), Julia Mammone, Liza Gendler, Celina McCall) came in third, one spot behind Springside.

Three other crews for the Quakers made it through a head race round. The boys’ novice double (Erich Riedlmeier (stroke), Stanton Young) ranked third in the qualifiers, and finished fifth in the finals, while the girls’ junior double (Heidi Zisselman (stroke) and Maria Georgiou) placed fifth in both their head race and the finals.

The boys’ JV double for PC (Spencer Grant (stroke), Kevin Kelly) were the fourth-fastest qualifiers in their event, and they ended up sixth in the finals.

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