Area sculling squads finish out Flick series

Posted 4/18/16

Germantown Friends’ novice quad earned a convincing victory in its flight. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption] by Tom Utescher As the annual Manny Flick/Horvat racing series wrapped up last Sunday …

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Area sculling squads finish out Flick series

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Germantown Friends’ novice quad earned a convincing victory in its flight. (Photo by Tom Utescher) Germantown Friends’ novice quad earned a convincing victory in its flight. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

by Tom Utescher

As the annual Manny Flick/Horvat racing series wrapped up last Sunday with regatta number five, crews from Germantown Academy, Germantown Friends, Penn Charter, and Springside Chestnut Hill finally enjoyed sunny weather along with bona fide spring temperatures.

Near the end of the Flick series “gender specific” racing is introduced, and last weekend all of the girls races were held consecutively, followed by the boys’ contests in the afternoon.

In the very first race of the day, Claire Weiss of Germantown Friends had a very successful second outing in the girls’ novice single, going eight seconds faster than the previous weekend to place first in seven minutes, 44.26 seconds.

Although much more experienced in general, Syracuse-bound GA senior Katie Aemisegger was also in a single for only the second time this spring, putting up the best time overall to win the first flight of the varsity event in 6:08.20. Second in the same race was GFS senior Addie McKenzie (6:21.05), while in flight two Bri Owen of the GA Patriots won in 6:30.85.

All of the area sculling programs piled into the JV double event, which was run in a head race format where boats are started at set intervals and then ranked solely on time. Out of a total of 14 entries, the GFS tandem of Sam Pancoe and Laila Okeson placed second in 6:02.76.

Farther down the results list, finishing consecutively in seventh through 10th place, were SCH’s Jessica Penn and Eliza Brody (6:21.58), Sydney Slavitt and Lily Zukin of GFS (6:23.07), Rachel Kliger and Elizabeth Wescott of GA (6:23.43), and Victoria Watson and Hunter Smith of Penn Charter (6:33.73).

The same schools, except for GFS, also entered the varsity double event. Fastest overall out of three flights was Conestoga High School (5:44.68), which won in the first section over Kelsey White and Sally Stanley of Penn Charter (second; 5:52.29) and Amanda Miller and Gabby Sciarrotta of Springside Chestnut Hill (third; 5:59.67). In the third flight, a time of 6:19.57 netted second place for GA’s Genna Feirson and Julia McKernan.

Another pair of Patriots, Nina Tang and Lindsay Naber, finished their lightweight double race in 5:57.34, coming in second in their flight and second of 12 contestants on time.

Moving up in size to the quads, GFS sent out rookie scullers in both a novice boat [Ellie Cheung (stroke), Isabella Viswanath, Chloe Smith-Frank, Sofia Newberg] and a freshman vessel [Isabel Ortega (stroke), Andy Regli, Ayla Malefakis, Sophie Henisz].

Both made third-place showings, the novices finishing in 6:25.40 in the lone flight of their event, while the freshmen were in the first of two races in their category. Although there were only three boats in their flight altogether, the Tiger freshmen turned in a time (6:01.22) that was faster than those of three quads in the second section.

Penn Charter won the second of the two JV quad races, where Madeline Whitehead (stroke), Julie Webb, Maria Perry, and Emma Grugan were timed in 5:36.90. Close to them, in terms of time, was an SCH quartet [Sofia Djerassi (stroke), Mia Humphreys, Paige Aloise, Grace Tasman] which pulled a 5:37.80 to land fifth in a fast first section. One spot behind the PC boat in the second flight was a GA entry [Emma Rapp (stroke), Grace Loughlin, Katie Hallahan, Mikayla Fassier] which finished in 5:46.45.

In the single flight of the lightweight quad, a veteran Germantown Friends crew of Maya Esberg (stroke), Katie Maguire, Tessa Curry, and Becca Genyk hit the wire in 5:27.38 for a comfortable four-and-a-half-second victory over runner-up Baldwin School.

While the varsity quad from SCH [Emma Lutz (stroke), Hope Lee, Grace Youngren, Lisa Burckhardt] was fifth in its flight, this foursome’s time of 5:36.02 put them eight seconds ahead of the fastest boat in the other race in this class.

One of the area sculling squads sent out sweep rowers in an eight; a group of first-year GA oarswomen participated in the novice eight head race. The Patriots [Lily Richards (cox), Laura Brown (stroke), Liv Malen, Margaret Horvat, Chichi Boye, Elizabeth Berlinger, Emily Morrissey, Addy Campbell, Sophie Worrell] did well, placing fourth in a field of 17 with a time of 5:41.03.

The head racing format carried over into the first few afternoon events for the boys, including the JV single. Here, PC’s Stephen Flemming turned in a time of 5:45.00 that earned him second place out of the 14 entries.

Regular side-by-side racing resumed with the novice single, a one-race event where SCH’s Nelson Crane finished third (7:12.92) and Charter’s Matt Groshens was fourth (7:26.88).

Other area rookies fared well in the second flight of the novice quad, where Wiley Corlett (stroke), Henry Ziegler, Bix Komita-Moussa, and Seve Reitano of GFS won in 5:20.17 and PC’s Nick Djerassi (stroke), Cole Frieman, Ryan Milkman, and Reid Kleinman took third in 5:47.15. GFS was second overall in time (just a second off the pace of number one Conestoga) and the Quakers’ quartet was fifth out of 12 boats.

Third-place finishes were achieved by a pair of doubles; SCH’s Hudson Smith and Damian Betancourt did it in the faster heat of the lightweight event (5:23.20), and GA’s Nick Moeller and Isaac Wilkins (5:41.60) did it in the first flight in the JV category, which was a little slower than the second race.

Four flights of the varsity double accommodated 20 entries overall. James Wright and Andrea Berghella of the GFS Tigers dominated the action, coming in at 5:14.80, seven seconds ahead of number two Roman Catholic. Fourth place overall in the large field went to Penn Charter’s Gordon Robertson and Cesar Centeno, in 5:23.47.

Near the end of the day’s racing, the SCH varsity quad containing Riley Bakes, Will Newbold, Michael Wrede, and Callum Brazier won their flight, and their time of 5:06.99 ranked them fifth overall.

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