The Mount St. Joseph lightweight four and lightweight eight crews pose with their gold medals at the SRAA National Regatta.

by Tom Utescher

The Memorial Day Weekend brought a road trip for some area rowers as they travelled to compete in the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s national championship regatta on May 27 and 28.

For several years in a row the SRAA’s had been held just across the Delaware on Camden’s Cooper River course, and the regatta had rarely ever strayed from an East Coast site. This year the gathering was held 400 miles to the west on Dillon Lake near Zanesville, Ohio, but at least it was a straight shot out the turnpike and Interstate 70 for athletes and fans from Germantown Academy, Germantown Friends, Mount St. Joseph, and Penn Charter.

This year, being a rower required to weigh-in was worth it, as all three gold medals won by local athletes were in the lightweight categories.

Coming off of a gold medal effort at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta the previous weekend, the Mount’s lightweight eight doubled down. With Shannon LoStracco as coxswain and Julia Comerford (stroke), Vicki Matsinger, Shannon Hughes, Erica Arnold, Molly Whalen, Brooke Gimaro, Katelin Cordero, and Rachel Sandquist at the oars, the Magic won the first of two heats on Friday with the fastest overall time, advancing directly into Saturday’s final.

The other semifinal was won by suburban Chicago power New Trier High School over the crew that had been a close runner-up to the Mount at Stotesbury, Virginia’s T.C. Williams. The SRAA final was also close, and here it was the Mount (5:10.177) taking the gold medal over New Trier (5:11.205) with T.C. Williams farther back in third (5:15.125).

In the women’s lightweight quad there were only four entries, so Sam Pancoe, Maya Esberg, Katie Maguire, and Ellie Cheung of Germantown Friends were racing simply for lane position in their Friday heat. They placed first by seven seconds and earned lane three in the middle of the course for Saturday’s showdown.

They won the final by almost exactly the same margin, defeating Saratoga Springs High School for the gold medal (5:33.916 to 5:40.674), while the bronze went to Monclair (N.J.) High (5:45.059).

Mount St. Joe’s lightweight four [Olivia Kylander (cox), Paige Comtois (stroke), Maddy Sandquist, Maddie Curran, Emma French] had earned a silver medal at Stotesbury, where the winner was a very strong Canadian crew from E.L. Crossley. With Crossley excluded from the Ohio racing, it turned out that the boats that finished second through fourth at Stotes each moved up one spot at SRAA’s, in the same order.

The Mounties put up the fastest heat time by nine seconds and the best semifinal figures by about seven ticks. The championship race was closer, but far from a photo finish as the Magic captured the gold medal over Absegami High School (N.J.), 5:45.602 to 5:47.957. Another Garden State group, Kearny High, bagged the bronze medal in 5:48.042.

The Mount and GFS each had another medal-winning crew, and GA picked up a silver from a women’s lightweight double powered by Lindsay Naber and Nina Tang. They finished second in their heat race to Saratoga, but were faster than the winner of the other heat, Xavier Prep of Phoenix, Az.

This was one of the categories where the top three boats in the heats advanced straight to the final round. Here, Saratoga took the gold medal in 5:50.697, while the Patriots gutted out a second-place finish over Xavier, 5:55.479 to 5:55.544.

A silver-medal weekend was also enjoyed by the freshman quad from GFS, which contained Andy Regli (stroke), Isabel Ortega, Sophie Henisz, and Ayla Malefakis. As for the Tigers’ lightweight quad, the crews in this event went heat racing just for lanes, as all seven entrants were accommodated in the final.

The Germantown rookies were fifth on Friday, but redeemed themselves the next day by leapfrogging three crews, including heat winner Saratoga Springs. The gold medal went to Skyline High School of Ann Arbor, Mich. at 5:43.285 in a sprint over silver medalist GFS (5:44.638). Saratoga settled for the bronze in 5:47.110.

A larger group of ninth-graders garnered a bronze medal for Mount St. Joseph, the freshman eight crew consisting of Katie Greed (cox), Julia Woodrow (stroke), Katie Edling, Harriett Blatney, Lauren Kiefner, Gia Hunt, Eileen McKenna, Claire Broderick, and Caroline Timoney.

Here, 20 entrants raced in three heats, which were won by (in order of time) Sartoga, the Mount, and New Trier.

The Magic won the faster of the two semifinal races, then in the finals they came in third (5:16.303) behind Saratoga (5:11.713) and T.C Williams (5:15.665) and ahead of fourth-place New Trier (5:17.955).

In the varsity eight class, New Trier outdueled Saratoga for the gold medal (4:54.939 to 4:55.276), while Stotesbury Cup champion National Cathedral Prep was the bronze medalist (4:59.851) and Mount St. Joseph came in fourth (5:01.329).

The Magic [Lindsey Maiale (cox), Erin McGreevey, Christina Knox, Cait Hagan, Maddie Lauinger, Alex Natale, Maddie Carlton, Grace Comerford, Alex Uzzo] won one of the six heats on Friday, moving on to one of the three semifinal races. Saratoga, New Trier, and National Cathedral were all winners here, while the Magic finished second in Saratoga’s section to make the grand final.

Also finishing just off the podium in fourth place were Stotesbury bronze medalist Katie Aemisegger of GA in a senior single and the only entry from Penn Charter, a girls senior double staffed by Sally Stanley and Kelsey White.

Although a senior, Aemisegger only started competing in a single this April, and she began to run into much more experienced solo artists in the major May regattas. In Ohio she advanced by finishing third both in her heat race and in one of the two semifinals.

The other two medalists from Stotesbury were in attendance, and all of them got bumped down one place by Merilynn Finley of Virginia’s Osbourn Park High School, who won the gold medal in 6:11.638. Rowers from Blessed Trinty (Ontario) and Augustine Classical Academy (N.Y.) won the silver and bronze in 6:14.261 and 6:20.668, while Aemisegger was next across in 6:24.391, ahead of a Saratoga rower who’d beaten her in the semifinals.

PC’s Stanley and White improved their standing at Nationals after coming in sixth in the Stotesbury Cup final. They were second in their SRAA heat and first in one of the two semifinal sections. Stotes gold medalist St. Stephens and St. Agnes School of Virginia ended up winning the final here as well (5:40.293).

Episcopal School of Jacksonville, Fla. snagged the silver in 5:43.258, well ahead of bronze medalist Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) High School.

Crossing the line in 6:01.660, the PC duo came in ahead of a Ridgewood High twosome who’d placed three spots ahead of the Quakers at Stotesbury.

A third GFS boat at the regatta was raced by Gabe Sher and Eric Shen in the thinly-populated boys lightweight double event, where the Tigers reached the finals and finished sixth.

In addition to the medalists and the varsity eight, three other Mount St. Joseph boats made the finals.

The JV four [Maddie Walsh (cox), Karsen Healy (stroke), Olivia Snakard, Kerry Faust, Christie Faust] and the JV eight [Abby Schwenger (cox), Brayslin Gallagher (stroke), Celene Mina, Sam Cordero, Sam Altomare, Cathryn Antonacio, Michelle Lipovski, Gabi Natale, Emma Veon] each placed fifth in the finals after starting out in a field of more than 20 boats. The Mount’s second eight second eight [Emily Woodrow (cox), Grace Little, Julianna Hunt, Brooke McMahon, Demi Simms, Olivia Tice-Carroll, Mia Fitzpatrick, Dana Mischler, Zoe Ramos] came in sixth on Saturday.