©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount crew storms Saratoga, captures five medals
by TOM UTESCHER

The Mount’s freshman eight poses after snagging the gold at Saratoga. Shown in the back row (left to right) are Coach Jim Glavin, Rachel Weller, Molly Southwell, Liz Kelly, Meaghan Scher, Johanna Duff and Mary Maginnis. In front (left to right) are Nicole Weinrich, Caroline Ayes and Erika McCormick. (Photo by Theresa Maginnis)

In the most dominant showing yet by its five eight-oared boats, Mount St. Joseph Academy collected three gold medals and two silvers at the 2006 Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Regatta, held May 26 and 27 on Fish Creek in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The Magic’s success appears to be unprecedented among female rowers; the SRAA could not cite another program that had achieved a similar feat since girls crews were added to the national regatta in the 1990’s.

The varsity (or senior) eight left its closest competitor seven seconds behind to claim the gold medal in the finals. Earlier in the season, the Mount boat had won the New Jersey State Championships, the Philadelphia City Championships, and the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, and when MSJ varsity coach Mike McKenna searched the available archives, he could find no other varsity eight crew that had won all four events (including SRAAs) in the same season. For schools from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this amounts to an unofficial but quite prestigious “grand slam.”

The Mount lightweights answer a call to arms, wearing their certification bands from weigh-ins. The 3 is their boat’s bow number from the SRAA final. The lightweight eight ended its second straight undefeated season.

Mount St. Joe’s lightweight eight also earned a gold medal (see separate story), rounding out its second straight undefeated season. Neither of these two crews is finished yet; the lightweights are headed to Cincinnati to tackle both high school and handpicked club teams at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships, and the varsity will pursue the Peabody Cup at the 19th Henley Women’s Regatta in England.

The Mount’s third SRAA gold medal, one that bodes well for the future, belonged to the freshman eight, which gutted out a one-second victory in the finals against the highly-regarded rookies from Holy Spirit (Margate City NJ).

Adding to the haul, the Magic’s junior eight and second eight each won silver medals in Saratoga.

The ninth-grade crew became the school’s third freshman boat in a row to win the gold medal at Nationals. Nicole Weinrich ran the show from the coxswain’s compartment, and the oarswomen were (stroke to bow) Johanna Duff, Meaghan Scher, Liz Kelly, Molly Southwell, Rachel Weller, Mary Maginnis, Erika McCormick and Caroline Ayes.

Facing stiff competition all season from Spirit and another Jersey team, Bishop Eustace, the Mounties flowed and ebbed through April and May, winning the New Jersey regatta, taking silver at Cities, winning the Doctor White freshman-and-novice event on the Schuylkill, and then coming in behind Spirit and Eustace for a bronze medal at Stotesbury.

If the pattern held, they’d do well at the SRAAs, but the third-place showing at Stotes wasn’t a morale-booster.

Asked what he emphasized in the practices before the Saratoga trip, MSJ freshman coach Jim Glavin replied “The biggest thing was making sure they understood that I had total confidence that they could win the race. In practice against the JV and the second eight, they were extraordinarily fast. To their credit, after we finished our regular workout every night, they went out and did sprints. They knew that’s what they needed to do, and they ended up winning on a sprint.”

At Saratoga, the boat advanced to the finals by winning the third of three qualifying heats, although the Mount’s time of 5:33.28 was eclipsed by five other boats, including Holy Spirit (5:25.45). Another familiar rival, Bishop Eustace, also reached the final, along with some fresh faces from a strong Illinois program, New Trier High School.

When the Magic was assigned to lane five in the final, Glavin told his freshmen to keep pace early in the race but to “hide” for a time alongside the Eustace crew, which raced in lane four and obscured the Mount boat from Spirit and New Trier. In the middle of the race, the Magic broke cover and moved up into the lead, but the others were in vigorous pursuit.

“Spirit almost came even with us with a hundred meters to go, then we made another shift and beat them,” related Glavin, whose youngsters won in 5:21.61, while Holy Spirit (5:22.23) took the silver medal and Bishop Eustace (5:23.12) got the bronze.

It was a sophisticated race plan for first-year rowers, but as Glavin pointed out, “We’ve been blessed in having exceptional coxswains. Jane [Mieczkowski, a junior who’s now the V-8 cox], because of her calm and control, won that race (SRAAs] in Orlando two years ago. Devon [Stewart, now with the lightweights] was outstanding last year, and Nicole’s every bit as good as the two of them.”

There was a simpler strategy for the second eight. This boat, containing Kaitlin “Kater-Tot” McDonald (cox), Erin McGann (stroke), Sarah Strano, Kerry Roman, Colleen Beichert, Denny Belcher, Kate Klein, Christine Quinn and Liz McDonald, had come in fifth at Stotesbury and now wanted to step up and capture a medal. A strong, sturdy bunch, the two-vee can power ahead of the Mount’s own varsity and lightweight boats for short spells during practice, but they lack the endurance of the other crews.

After they made their way to the finals at Saratoga, coach McKenna recalled, “I told them, ‘Girls, there’s one way you’re going to medal, and that’s to trust your bodies and go out there like it’s a one-minute race and hang on as long as you can.’ They were gassed at the end, and they were fading fast, but they held on for the silver.”

The gold medal went to Mainland, a Jersey team, in 5:28.70, while Mount St. Joe’s finished in 5:31.18 and Thomas Jefferson (Springfield, Va.) was third in 5:34.39.

A silver medal also went to the JV crew of Alicia Elliott (cox), Gina DiDomenico (stroke), Amanda Chain, Lawren Kieffer, Mer Weber, Katie Leonard, Megan Schluckebier, Lizzy Kiernan and Gabi Jordan. The Mount jay-vees came down the course in 5:21.66 to finish between gold medalist St. Ursula Academy (Toledo Ohio), which won in 5:19 flat, and Oakcrest (Egg Harbor N.J.), a remote third in 5:29.35. The St. Ursula franchise had clearly focused its efforts on its junior varsity entry; the Arrows did not bring a varsity eight to Saratoga.

While the rowers dueled on Fish Creek, spectators strove to maintain their footing on dry land that was anything but since rainstorms throughout the spring had transformed the banks of the racecourse into a quagmire. Acres of hay had been spread over the goo, but the net effect, in the words of one Mount athlete, was that of “a smelly barnyard.”

Fortunately, conditions on the course itself were nearly ideal. On the Schuylkill this spring, the relatively small rowers in the Mount’s varsity eight had struggled against headwinds race after race. Still, the Magic had prevailed against many physically larger crews that, in theory, enjoyed an advantage in such conditions. At Saratoga, though, all was calm.

“There was also a little bit of a head current,” McKenna pointed out, “and we practice against the current all the time. With those two parameters in mind I thought, boy, if our kids execute, we’re going to do very well.”

Five of the girls — seniors Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald (six seat), Mary Grace Maggiano (four) and Meredith Walsh (five), and juniors Megan McCusker (stroke) and Emily Walker (two) — were members of the 2005 V-8 crew, which won at Stotesbury, but was knocked out in the semifinals at Nationals. The other four came from crews that were undefeated last season; juniors Jane Mieczkowski (cox) and Steph Farris (seven) from the lightweight eight, and sophomores Meg Kehan (three) and Hilary “Cloudy” O’Shea (bow) from the freshman eight.

This year there would be no early exit from SRAAs as the Mount posted the second-fastest overall time in the qualifying heats and the fastest time in the semifinals. The interesting thing is, the Magic was actually slowing down, instead of sprinting, at the end of these races.

Walker revealed, “We all agreed as a boat that near the end, if we knew that we were going to win, we would bring [the stroke-per-minute rate] down two-strokes-a-minute every few strokes, so we’d conserve energy for the final.”

Winter Park (Fla.), the crew that had finished second to the Mount at Stotesbury, also advanced to the championship event, along with an eight from Berkeley, Calif., that seemed to grow faster with every race. In the finals, Mount St. Joe’s broke from the pack about a third of the way down the course.

“Our seniors were the only three in the boat who had never won Nationals,” noted Farris, “so we took a move for them about 500 meters in, and we were able to really pull ahead there.”

Afterwards, both Farris and Meiczkowski would own three gold medals in three different categories; they’d won together as freshmen in 2004, and as lightweights last year.

Although the Magic was leading comfortably late in the race, Farris related, “We said, hey, it’s the finals of Nationals, so we’re going to sprint no matter what.”

They won, literally going away, in 5:17.16, and the real drama centered on the dash for the silver medal, in which Berkeley (5:24.13) nipped Winter Park (5:24.37).

Walker said of the Californians, “They’re a great crew and they were great sportsmen afterwards. They seemed happy for us, and that’s rare.”

Within the Mount St. Joe’s boat, she noted, there has been a sense of harmony and purpose all year.

“I’m blessed to be in a boat this good,” she reflected. “We’re all very good friends; there’s no animosity like there is in some crews. Our boat is very goal-oriented.”

Only one more goal remains for the big eight, being the first boat to cross the line on the final day at Henley.