To the girls in the Germantown Friends lightweight quad, it didn’t feel like Spring arrived last Sunday. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

by Tom Utescher

While the Germantown Academy crew sat out the second of the Manny Flick races last Sunday, Penn Charter made its 2016 Schuylkill debut and scullers from Germantown Friends and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy got in another weekend of work.

PC’s highly successful girls double from 2015 picked up where it left off. Now racing in the varsity category, North Carolina signee Sally Stanley and junior stroke Kelsey White whipped up on the rest of their flight to win by 22 seconds in 6:03.19. It was the fastest time out of all three flights, but there could be some competition out there for the Quakers from an Episcopal Academy duo who won their section in 6:07.33.

In the junior single, Charter’s Stephen Flemming won out in a much tighter race, prevailing by less than three-tenths of a second but posting a time (5:48.56) that was 10 seconds faster than the best figure from the other flight in this event. In the same race as Flemming, James Wright of GFS placed third and also bested the time from the other section with a 5:57.21.

In the lone girls varsity single race, GFS senior Addie McKenzie mastered a five-boat field, completing the course in 6:23.74, almost 11 full seconds ahead of runner-up Agnes Irwin. In a girls single entered by Penn Charter, Maria Perry started her spring with a runner-up finish in the JV event (in 6:36.42).

SCH’s Nelson Crane turned in another solid effort in the novice single, trailing only a New Jersey competitor and placing second ahead of two in-state rivals. In the Blue Devils’ girls JV double, Jessica Penn and Eliza Brody recorded their second straight runner-up result in the Flicks.

Here, Strath Haven was out in first place alone, while the SCH tandem logged a time of 6:29.08 and was able to resist a challenge from Germantown Friends’ Lily Zukin and Rei Marshall, who were third in 6:31.76.

Girls from the two schools reversed roles in the lightweight quad. The runner-up boat behind Baldwin School contained Tigers Tessa Curry, Katie Maguire, Laila Okeson, and Becca Genyk (5:40.61), and they crossed the line ahead of number three SCH, represented by Megan Karoly, Larissa Noble, Bridget Hennessy, and Olivia Clark (5:51.53).

Germantown also debuted a freshman quad, in which rookies Sophie Henisz, Isabela Viswanath, Isabel Ortega, and Andy Regli found rough going in a one-on-one battle with Agnes Irwin’s Owlets.

In different flights in the girls JV quad category, SCH and Penn Charter each produced second-place performances. The Blue Devils, with Sofia Djerassi, Penn (doubling up after racing in a double), Paige Aloise, and Grace Tasman, were a little quicker than the Quakers quartet of Madeline Whitehead, Julie Webb, Hunter Smith, and Emma Grugan (5:53.66 to 5:59.54). The winners of the two races were from Inter-Ac rivals Irwin and Baldwin School.

Dead in the water. An SCH quad crew finds there’s no quick fix for a snapped oar. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

Area entries in the lightweight double class consisted of a boys’ boat from Springside Chestnut Hill (Hudson Smith and Damian Betancourt), and a girls’ vessel from Penn Charter (Sharon Zea-Rincon and Anna Pogrebivsky).

SCH’s time of 5:25.63 garnered second place in a four-boat field, while the PC ladies were third of five, in 6:46.91.

In addition to the girls varsity double, the Quakers entered a boys varsity craft powered by Cesar Centeno and Gordon Robertson. In the fastest overall of three flights, they placed third in 5:31.00.

SCH raced varsity quads for both girls (Emma Lutz, Hope Lee, Grace Youngren, and Lisa Burckhardt) and boys (Michael Wrede, Riley Bakes, Will Newbold, and Callum Brazier). In a single flight, the Blue Devil girls (5:44.24) crossed the line in between victorious Conestoga High School and third-place Academy of Notre Dame. In the second of two flights, the SCH boys landed third out of four boats, in 5:03.31.

The Blue Devils’ boys JV quad didn’t finish its race, but did make the highlight reel. The four lads, who will go unnamed here, were disqualified early on for a lane violation. Needing to continue downstream in any event, they caught a crab farther down the course and snapped an oar. They were rescued by a referees’ launch.