by Tom Utescher

Supporters of area rowers suffered through nasty weather in the first four Manny Flick/Horvat regattas on the Schuylkill, but their fortunes finally changed last Sunday for the fifth and final Flick of 2018. On this clear, bright day the boys’ and girls’ races were divided into two sections on the schedule, and the boys got the better part of that bargain as they performed in the afternoon under the balmiest conditions.

Things got going for the lads with some head-race style competition, where the boats in each category come downriver in single file, instead of in side-by-side groups. They are then ranked by the time it takes them to complete the 1500-meter course.

Area schools only had boats entered in one of these head-race events, the JV quad. Germantown Friends experienced the best results of the locals, with Owen Keim, Alec Sandroni, Doulin Appleberry and Finn Kassell Osborne placing eighth, right in the middle of the 15-boat field.

Regular racing began with a single flight of the boys’ gig/novice single, where Germantown Academy’s Jamie Werther came in third. This was immediately followed by a victory in the fast flight of the freshman/novice double by GA’s Andreas Moeller and Alex Walkush.

In the novice quad, Springside Chestnut Hill took second in the opening flight with Edward Gu, Yofi Guy, Will Percy and Jake Scholl. The second race in this class proved faster, and here Robert May, Jekeun Jung, Ethan Rupp and Bailey Greenwald of the GFS Tigers triumphed in convincing fashion.

In the initial flight of the JV doubles, GA’s Charlie Shafer and Dylan Robertson won in five minutes, 30.62 seconds, and first place in the next flight went to Nick Djerassi and Ryan Milkman of Penn Charter in 5:38.90. In the two races, fourth-places finishes with similar times were recorded by GA’s Daniel Krausz and Pedro Sobral, and by Avi Kulkami and Robin Zhang of Germantown Friends.

The JV quad for the GFS Tigers was in one of the categories that engaged in a timed head race. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

While northern New Jersey’s Ridgewood High School smoked everyone else in the lightweight doubles in overall time, GFS got a win in the second flight thanks to Seve Reitano and Raz Allon.

One of SCH’s success stories all spring, the lightweight quad, was victorious once more. Faced with an out-of-state challenger, Blue Devils Elliott Cunningham, Eliot Rusk, Gyre Jaeger, Ian McLelland won by eight seconds over Niskayuna High School, located near Schenectady, N.Y.

In the first (and faster) flight of the varsity single, Isaac Wilkins of the GA Patriots was the runner-up.

Germantown Friends’ James Wright, who has dominated varsity singles racing in the Manny Flick regattas this spring, was not present last weekend. Instead, the Stanford-bound senior was facing a different set of competitors at the Mercer Sprints near Princeton, where he won the grand final by 18 seconds. The Tigers’ Reitano and Allon actually appeared both at the Pennsylvania and New Jersey venues on Sunday.

On the Schuylkill, Springside Chestnut Hill wrapped up its 2018 Flick season with a third-place outcome in the varsity double from Sean Edling and Austin Gedrich.