©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Sports

No sound, lots of fury for Mount’s golden V-8
by TOM UTESCHER

Members of the Mount's varsity eight pose with their gold medals and the Robert Engman Trophy. Front row (left to right): mary Grace Maggiano, Francesca Crozier-fitxgerald, Meredith Walsh and head coach Megan Kennedy. Back row (left to right): Megan McCusker, Steph Farris, Emily Walker, Meg Kehan, Hilary O'Shea, Jane Mieczkowski and varsity coach Mike McKenna.

It began right on the starting line in Saturday’s championship race at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. In Mount St. Joseph Academy’s varsity eight, the cox-box – a sort of compact public address system used by coxswains to communicate along the length of these long vessels – began to malfunction.

During the race that followed, the final event at the largest high school regatta in the world, the rowers heard junior cox Jane Mieczkowski’s voice only intermittently, as if listening to a mobile phone call in a bad cell. Fortunately for this seasoned crew, everything else was in sync, and a furious final sprint allowed the Magic to overtake a boat from Winter Park, FL and capture the Stotesbury gold medal for the second year in a row.

Pittman, Rhoda medal for CHA, Springside crew
by TOM UTESCHER

Wallis Furman (left) and Katherine Roberts, who formed Springside School's junior double, pull through the river at Stotesbury. (Photo by Lene White)

The Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School crews toted home a sack full of medals from the Philadelphia City Championships at the beginning of May, but the plunder was not nearly as plentiful for the Blue Devils and Lions at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta last weekend.

CHA 11th graders Will Rhoda and Chris Pittman earned the lone medal out of the group, turning in a time of five minutes, 44.61 seconds in the junior double to take the bronze. North Jersey’s Don Bosco Prep won the gold in 5:41.19 over Malvern Prep (5:44.61), while the Chestnut Hill duo finished ahead of North Allegheny from Western Pennsylvania (5:48.86), Shenendehowa from New York, and Mathews High School, from Virginia.

History comes alive for winning Mount crews at Stotesbury
by TOM UTESCHER

Members of Mount St. Joe's freshman 8 show off their bronze medals alongside the river. The freshman 8 were just one success story Mount fans took home with them after the Stotesbury Regatta. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

The sixth seat in Mount St. Joseph Academy’s junior varsity eight is occupied by sophomore Lawren Kieffer, whose father, uncle, grandfather, and great-uncle all rowed in the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. The Magic’s O’Neill sisters, senior Kelly and sophomore Jenna, fill the fourth and third seats, respectively, in the MSJ lightweight eight, and they can trace their crew lineage back to their great-grandfather, Paul Geyer, who won a Stotesbury gold medal for West Catholic High School back in 1928.

GA girls resist Charter challenge to repeat as track champ
by TOM UTESCHER

The quest for top honors at the Girls Inter-Ac track and field championship came down to a struggle between a pair of league powers who are familiar rivals, Germantown Academy and Penn Charter. The event was staged at GA on May 13.

Merion sticksters subdue Mount in AACA semifinal
by TOM UTESCHER

The fourth-seeded Mount St. Joseph Academy lacrosse team was hoping to upset the top seed in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies for the second year in a row, but this time around it wasn’t in the cards for the Magic