In a junior quad race, Germantown Academy (foreground) tries to close the gap on Springside Chestnut Hill. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The weather this March hasn't been kind to many athletes on spring sports teams, but for the first regatta in the 2018 Manny Flick series area crews performed last Sunday under sunny conditions with tolerable afternoon temperatures in the mid to high 40's.

Still, bad weather earlier in the month threw a kink into training schedules, and Penn Charter decided to skip the first Flick altogether.

Germantown Academy, Germantown Friends, Mount St. Joseph and Springside Chestnut Hill each had some boats ready to launch, but not in the numbers that will be seen a few weeks from now.

There is normally a curtailed scheduled for the opening regatta in any event, and the first area vessels did not leave the starting line until after 10:30 a.m.

First up were a pair of boys' JV doubles from Germantown Academy, which saw Charlie Shafer and Dylan Robertson come in second in a five-boat field, while Andreas Moeller and Alex Walkush placed fourth.

Next, Mount St. Joe sent out a JV four staffed by Gabby Ford, Kaitlyn Squadrito, Maureen McGreevey, Alex Lerro and Hailey Goodyear. They trounced their competition, hitting the finish line 11 seconds ahead of their nearest competitor.

The GA Patriots had an entry in each of the two girls' JV quad heats, and in the first section Elizabeth Berlinger, Margaret Horvat, Maylin Lindsey and Addy Campbell romped to victory 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Germantown Friends. In their turn, the Tigers (Andy Regli, Annika Erlacher, Vanessa Mirage, Amory Park) finished in front of their Friends Schools League rivals from Shipley.

In the second heat, Springside Chestnut Hill (Amber Stallworth, Katie Walker, Zoe Thistle, Nahla Turner) put up a time slightly faster than that of GFS in the other race, and seven seconds better than the second GA entry (ChiChi Boye, Ava Hook, Lily Richards, Brynne DiDonato) in their own race.

Germantown Friends doubled up in the boys' JV quad, and in the faster first section Avi Kulkami, Owen Keim, Robin Zhang and Seve Reitano finished third in a six-boat field, while in the second flight fourth place went to Alec Sandroni, Doulin Appleberry, Jack Miller and Jesse McIlhenny.

Mount St. Joseph varsity eight cox Maddie Walsh (right) urges on her stern pair, Katie Edling (left) and Gia Hunt. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

In the faster of the JV eight races, the Mount (Katie Greed, Julia Woodrow, Lauren Kiefner, Julia Ianieri, Molly McKenna, Emily Lubinski, Eva Timoney, Riley Gorman, Eileen McKenna) rushed down the river 15 seconds faster than fellow Athletic Association of Catholic Academies member Merion Mercy.

As the lightweight races got underway, Zaynab Sanogo and Meg Bigelow of GFS wound up fourth with their double. In the four, the Tigers' Gabby Schwartz, Chloe Smith-Frank, Sam Pancoe, Isabel Mehta and Sophie Henisz fared a bit better. Harriton High won the race, but GFS took second place half-a-second ahead of a Mount St. Joe boat containing Lauren Walsh, Caitlin Lawson, Brigit Ferry, Grace Morrow and Ainsley Morasco.

As usual, the Mount's top eight lightweight rowers were in the lightweight eight, and this boat beat its lone opponent by close to half-a-minute. Abby Schwenger was the cox presiding over Karsen Healy, Maddie Sandquist, Lauren Vesey, Claire Broderick, Nora Hogan, Harriett Blatney, MaryKate Ciolko and Shayne McKernan. Schwenger and Ciolko are both Norwood Fontbonne Academy grads.

In between these girls' fours and eights races, a boys' lightweight quad provided the best performance of the day for Springside Chestnut Hill. The Blue Devils' Eliot Rusk, Elliott Cunningham, Gyre Jaeger, Ian McLelland won their race over rivals from two strong sculling programs, Roman Catholic High School and Malvern Prep.

Germantown Friends' Lily Zukin had made a late change from a varsity double to a single, and she turned in a fine solo run, winning by about two-and-a-half seconds.

This set up a singles sweep by the Tigers, as the boys' event was won by U.S. junior national rower James Wright. The Stanford-bound senior appeared perfectly relaxed as he crossed the line more than seven seconds ahead of his closest rival. Germantown Academy's Derek Walkush came in third in that race.

One of two boys' JV quads entered by Germantown Friends makes its way down the course. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

In a widely-separated five-boat field in the girls' varsity double, second place went to Elizabeth Wescott and Julia McKernan of GA. The boys' version featured SCH's Austin Gedrich and Sean Edling, who finished fourth. The last Blue Devil boat to race was a varsity quad, and here fourth place was also the outcome for Bridget Hennessy, Hope Lee, Paige Aloise and Olivia Clark.

Edling's younger sister, Katie, is a junior who is in her second season in Mount St. Joseph's flagship, the varsity eight. For last Sunday's initial Manny Flick race in this category, the regular V-8 crew (Maddie Walsh, Gia Hunt, Edling, Caroline Timoney, Gabi Natale, Cathryn Antonacio, Aydin McPhilemy, Erica Arnold, Brynn Pelletier) was joined by the school's second eight (Izzy Mina, Aileen Mansfield, Maddie Curran, Katie Hallahan, Katelynn Clement, Aine Playdon, Julia Flynn, Sam Cordero, Christie Faust).

Racing closest to the river bank, the MSJ varsity was challenged in the middle section of the race by Merion Mercy over in lane three. After that, the Magic took control and won with a time of four minutes, 57.10 seconds over the Golden Bears (5:02.37). The Mount second eight was a bit farther back, but still snagged third place over three other crews.

Four participants in this final race were also Norwood alums: Flynn, Mansfield, McPhilemy and Timoney.