©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

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.

All three girls did their ancestors proud last Friday and Saturday at the 80th edition of the prestigious rowing event, helping the Mount garner gold medals in both the JV eight and lightweight eight categories. The school’s varsity eight also took top honors (see separate story), and the Magic freshman eight won a bronze medal, making for a memorable weekend for Mount St. Joe supporters.

The initial round of races on Friday went well for the Magic, who sent all five of their eight-oared vessels into the semifinals. One of the three fours sent out by the Mount made the first cut, as well.

The first of the eights to qualify was the freshman boat, staffed by Nicole Weinrich (cox), Johanna Duff (stroke), Meaghan Scher, Liz Kelly, Molly Southwell, Rachel Weller, Mary Maginnis, Erika McCormick and Caroline Ayes. They cruised into the semifinals with the best time out of 43 crews, at 5:14.19.

The Mount JV eight containing Alicia Elliott (cox), Gina DiDomenico (stroke), Amanda Chain, Kieffer, Mer Weber, Katie Leonard, Megan Schluckebier, Lizzy Kiernan and Gabi Jordan led a 31-boat pack, eclipsing the second-fastest boat by almost eight seconds.

The lightweight eight, going for its third straight Stotesbury gold medal, held up its end of the bargain by recording the top time in the class. The familiar line-up of Devon Stewart (cox), Jenn Young (stroke), Liz Stanowski, Marykate Kelly, Mollie Flynn, the O’Neill sisters, Liz Keenan and Meg Farris qualified in 5:24.13, but a crew from Winter Park, FL was not too far back, at 5:28.49.

Unless boats were on the course at exactly the same time, comparing their times was pretty much a fruitless exercise, since throughout the weekend conditions varied widely, going from warm and sunny to chilly and overcast, with strong gusts of wind raking the river for a few minutes, then dying away.

Rowing in the second eight, Kaitlin McDonald (cox), Erin McGann (stroke), Sarah Strano, Kerry Roman, Colleen Beichert, Denny Belcher, Kate Klein, Christine Quinn and Liz McDonald clocked in third, easily earning a place among 18 crews who moved up out of the initial field of 27.

A total of 51 senior fours were entered at Stotesbury and Whitney Zielinski (cox), Rose Mazurek, Colleen McNamara, Molly Thompson and Gina Perri clocked in 12th in the qualifier (6:42.84) to join the pack of 18 semifinalists. They hit the wall in their Saturday semifinal, however, finishing sixth in a race where only the top two advanced to the final round.

Late Friday afternoon, the Mount won the first of three semifinals in the freshman eight, and the ninth graders moved into a Saturday final made up of familiar boats from Philadelphia and South Jersey. They had beaten them all at one point or another, winning both the New Jersey State Championship Regatta and the Doctor White Regatta on the Schuylkill.

At Stotes, however, two of the Jersey schools excelled, with Holy Spirit snaring the gold medal in 5:34.48, and Bishop Eustace taking the silver less than a second later. The Magic captured the bronze medal in 5:38.69 and Mainland (NJ) was fourth, followed by Merion Mercy and Atlantic City.

Mount St. Joe’s second eight won its Saturday morning semifinal with the second-best overall time. Of all the older eights, this one contained the largest complement of girls who attended the Mount senior prom on Friday night, and the crew ran out of gas in the finals, their second race on Saturday. Mainland won in 5:27.01, and the Magic came in fifth in 5:35.46.

There was a happier ending for the JV eight, where Kiernan, in the two seat, was the lone upperclassman. They were wide awake for their 8:00 AM semfinal on Saturday, easily winning their heat and posting the best time overall.

This group has taken on the nickname, the Big Geese, thanks largely to assistant coach Stuart Chase, who works closely with the JV crew. Driving down Martin Luther King Drive one day, he saw a goose waddling across the roadway, backing up traffic. “Why walk when you have the ability to fly?” he thought, and when he posed that question to the jayvee’s, the concept stuck.

The rowers took flight in the final to win in 5:44.25, and their split of 7.69 seconds was the largest margin of victory out of the Magic’s three gold medal eights. Saratoga (NY) silvered, and the bronze medal went to Mainland.

In another early semifinal on Saturday, the lightweight eight won its semifinal by nine seconds, also registering the top time in the class. The lights went up to the grandstand area to hang out at the Mount tent, and after lunch all nine members of the crew wedged themselves into Coach Chase’s compact station wagon (Try that, varsity!) to head down to their boat.

“We were a little scared of Winter Park,” admitted five-seater Mollie Flynn, a Chestnut Hill native. “They were an unfamiliar crew, and they had the closest time to us in the head races.”

As the final got underway, most of the Magic rowers were also thinking about their teammate Liz Keenan, the senior in the two seat.

“She had never won a Stotesbury gold medal and everybody else in the boat had, so we dedicated a power-ten to her around the Prep boathouse [a third of the way down the course],” Flynn revealed.

That helped the Mount widen their lead on the other boats, but Winter Park tried to challenge later in the race, with a few hundred meters to go.

“They started to gain seats on us at the end of the island,” Flynn said, “but I think we all knew subconsciously that we were going to pull it out.”

By the finish line, the Magic had opened things up again and beat the Wildcats by five seconds, 5:22.21 to 5:27.37. McLean (VA) was another six seconds back, but was in time for a bronze medal, while the last three places went to Nutley (NJ), Camden Catholic, and Holy Spirit.

Proudly wearing their gold medals, the MSJ lightweights and jayvee’s settled in to wait for their teammates in the varsity eight to come down the river. Somewhere, still on earth or in a higher place, the forebears of Lawren Kieffer and the O’Neill sisters were wearing big grins.