All alone near the end of the freshman eight race, the newest Mounties made a statement with their convincing victory. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Every spring, by the end of the third regatta in the Manny Flick/Horvat series just about every first-year rower on area crews has been introduced to racing on the Schuylkill River. This was true again this year, as those rookies who hadn’t ventured out yet in March figuratively (and sometimes literally) got their feet wet last Sunday.

The Mount St. Joseph newbies had competed down at St. Andrew’s School on Saturday, but rowing on the Delaware school’s sheltered lake course is a bit different to coping with the Schuylkill in a bit of a breeze. Nevertheless, the Magic made an impressive debut on the Kelly Drive course.

North Jersey’s Montclair High School put up the best time of all of the novice eights while winning the first flight in that category, but the first of the two MSJ boats to see action finished second.

The crew featured coxswain Ella Valencia presiding over oarswomen Juliana Shouldis, Kate Roberts, Maura Scanlon, Caroline Kyle, Claire Hanycz, Emma Dougherty, Emma Del Vecchio and Nicole Uzzo. The Mounties recovered from a minor hiccup and bested third-place Episcopal Academy by 10 seconds.

In the second race in this class, Germantown Academy decided to join the big boats and had its crew of Ella Brant, Jordan Robertson, Tai Humphrey, Yolanda Peat, Faith Davis, Rachel Roth, Christina Nguyen, Priya Anand and Nicoletta Roman place third.

In round three for the novices, Mount St. Joe romped away from Ocean City High School to win by more than 20 seconds. This ensemble featured coxswain Arlyn Kryst and her stick swingers, Michaela Donato, Julia Norton, Hannah Rossmeisl, Ruby French, Ilsa Maguire, Lindsay Shearman, Maggie Mikalic and Sarah Gorovitz.

The Mounties kept on rocking when the regular freshman eight races rolled around. The line-up of Caroline Donahue, Izzy McCafferty, Kaylee Dougherty, Hannah Lemanowicz, Cate Van Stone, Ena Altier, Sydney McKernan, Maggie Newell and Olivia Guza outsped runner-up Merion Mercy by a dozen seconds. The Magic’s time was 23 seconds better than any boat in the next two freshman flights, and 20 seconds better than that of Montclair’s novice eight.

Penn Charter ninth-graders Taylor Lokoff (left) and Amanda Cowhey were some of the first scullers on the Schuylkill last Sunday. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Last Sunday all of the girls’ races were held before the action got underway for the boys’, and it was still quite chilly when the freshman/novice doubles started out just after 9:00 A.M. Penn Charter was a pretty close second in the first flight with Amanda Cowhey and Taylor Lokoff, and in the second section fourth place was claimed by Kelly Doerzbacher and Lenny Lorenz of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

Both the Germantown Friends and SCH entries in the novice quad came up winners, with Sophia Ortega, Annika Ehrlacher, Amelia Sanchirico, Evelyn Anderson of GFS taking the first flight in five minutes, 45.40 seconds, while Blue Devils Simone Tate, Iris Alex, Guilia Giordano and Charlotte Reitmeyer clocked in at 6:07.20 as they won the second section.

In the freshman quad race (a single flight), SCH was the runner-up and posted a time of 5:41.01 with a foursome consisting of Ella Webb, Polly Sweeney, Kiley McTamney and Olivia McHugh. The Blue Devil quartet won a very hard-fought race for second here; Conestoga High School came in third in 5:41.50, and a second SCH entry (Mikayla Merin, Jocelyn Freed, Siyah Harrison, Elizabeth Castellanos) placed fourth in 5:41.83. Later on, Webb would do double duty as a replacement sculler in a JV boat.

As in the girls’ novice racing, Penn Charter started out in the boys’ competition with a second-place outcome. Here it was Taylor Whitehead emerging as the runner-up in the boys’ gig/novice single category.

Next, in the freshman/novice double, GA’s Andreas Moeller and Alex Walkush won by 10 seconds over Inter-Ac rival Haverford School. PC’s James Tanner and Kees Lynch finished one spot behind the Fords. In the second flight of this event, third place went to Josh Kulak and Rich Soong of the GFS Tigers.

Germantown Friends saw its first-year scullers wrap things up on Sunday with a victory in the novice quad. In what was by far the faster of the two flights, GFS had Robert May, Jekeun Jung, Ethan Rupp and Bailey Greenwald cruise across the line 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Conestoga High School.