by Tom Utescher

After racing on the Cooper River for the relocated Stotesbury Cup Regatta in the middle of May, area rowers travelled back to Camden over Memorial Day weekend for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America regatta, which has routinely been held on the Cooper in recent years.

In the boys’ varsity single, the field at SRAA’s was so strong that Germantown Friends’ senior standout, James Wright, was not the clear favorite. He came away with the gold medal, however, avenging a close loss in the Stotesbury final to a Long Island sculler and also finishing ahead of an accomplished competitor from upstate New York.

In preliminary heats it looked as though Mount St. Joseph Academy’s lightweight eight might actually face a serious challenge, a rarity this season. In the finals, though, the Magic lights (Abby Schwenger, Karsen Healy, Maddy Sandquist, Lauren Vesey, Claire Broderick, Nora Hogan, Harriett Blatney, MaryKate Ciolko, Shayne McKernan) stepped on the gas and grabbed the gold eight seconds ahead of a bunch from Buffalo, N.Y.

The boys of GFS would capture two other medals: a silver in the boys’ lightweight double for Raz Allon and Finn Kassell Osborne and a bronze in the boys’ JV double for Owen Keim and Doulin Appleberry. The Mount’s JV eight (Katie Greed, Julia Woodrow, Lauren Kiefner, Emily Lubinski, Eva Timoney, Riley Gorman, Mae Sweeney, Julia Ianieri, Eileen McKenna) was a silver medalist, and a bronze medal in the girls’ lightweight double was won by Paige Aloise and Bridget Hennessy of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

Because crews had to earn admittance into the SRAA’s by meeting a certain standard in qualifying regattas (locally, the Philadelphia City Championships), the number of entries were limited. A total of 20 area boats started out in Camden, and a quarter of them did not advance out of the initial heat races on Friday. The SRAA’s always draw many strong crews from other parts of the country, and this year the talent level was particularly high.

Once boats had make the cuts in the heats, in the categories with a large overall field they moved into a semifinal round, while in the events with fewer entries they advanced straight into a six-boat final.

Out of seven overall Mount St. Joe entries, all five eights qualified and two fours did not. One boat, the light eight, went directly into the finals, while the others fed into the semifinal races.

GFS began with five boats, which all made it through qualifying. Two GFS vessels ended their weekend in the semifinal round, while there was no semifinal stage for the other three. All three crews signed up for SCH were in categories where they went straight to the finals after the qualifying heats. The bronze medal double was joined by a boys’ lightweight quad that came in fourth, and a girls’ freshman quad that finished fifth.

Germantown Academy lost one of its three entries in the opening heats. Another boat was not able to move up out of the semifinals, but senior Elizabeth Wescott, who had been racing in a double all season, went through to the finals in the varsity single, finishing sixth. A pair of doubles entered by Penn Charter started and finished in Friday’s heats.

First in action, early on Friday morning, was GA’s Wescott in the varsity single. Finishing fourth in the third of three heats, she became one of the 12 rowers to earn a place in the semifinal round. Fellow Patriot Isaac Wilkins advanced in the boys’ single with a fourth-place showing in the first heat of that event.

The next heat was won by Wright of GFS, but there were faster times put up by the winners of the other two sections. One was John Karen of St. Anthony’s, who had nipped Wright at the finish at Stotesbury. A less familiar but equally formidable opponent had the fastest heat time overall. This was Rhett Burns of F.D. Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, N.Y., who broke the Head of the Charles record by 12 seconds last fall.

Strategizing with GFS head coach Aaron Preetam, Wright explained, “In this regatta we really focused on rowing well, and not relying solely on my physical fitness and power. I concentrated on the placing of the blades, so I could have a better sequencing on the drive.”

After the singles, a pair of area lightweight doubles advanced, with Aloise and Hennessy of SCH placing second in their heat, while Allon and Kassell Osborne of GFS were third in one of the heats on the boys’ side. The Tigers got another boat through as Keim and Appleberry took second in one of the heats in the boys’ JV double. All three of these doubles went directly into the final round.

Advancing in the same manner was the SCH freshman quad containing Ella Webb, Polly Sweeney, Kiley McTamney and Olivia McHugh. They won their heat race, although the top two times in the other section were faster.

The Mount’s freshman eight (Caroline Donahue, Izzy McCafferty, Kaylee Dougherty, Hannah Lemanowicz, Sydney McKernan, Cate Van Stone, Ena Altier, Nicole Uzzo, Maggie Newell) had been a silver medalist at Stotesbury. Now they began SRAA’s by winning the third of four opening heats, and their time was just three-tenths of a second off the fastest number overall.

The Mount Magic’s JV eight won its heat; a little surprisingly, its time was only fifth fastest out of the group. Mount St. Joe had the eighth-ranked time in the varsity eight qualifying, but this crew (Maddie Walsh, Katie Edling, Caroline Timoney, Cathryn Antonacio, Gabi Natale, Brynn Pelletier, Aydin McPhilemy, Erica Arnold) still beat all the boats lined up against them, winning the fifth of six heats by two-and-a-half seconds over Virginia’s T.C. Williams High School.

Mount varsity eight senior coxswain Maddie Walsh (left) urges on junior stroke Katie Edling during the SRAA qualifying heats. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

After a midday break, the GFS varsity double pulled by Kim Hua and Isabel Ortega took fourth in its heat to reach the semifinals. The Tigers also earned a semifinal spot with their girls’ lightweight four (Gabby Schwartz, Sam Pancoe, Isabel Mehta, Sophie Henisz, Luzia Nehez), which was third in its race in the opening round.

Although the Mount second eight (Izzy Mina, Grace Morrow, Aileen Mansfield, Katie Hallahan, Molly McKenna, Julia Flynn, Aine Playdon, Sam Cordero, Christie Faust) also became a semifinalist thanks to a third-place effort in its heat, the Magic 2V’s time was among the slower ones among the 12 crews that moved on.

One of the top boats for the SCH Blue Devils this spring, a lightweight quad crew consisting of Elliott Cunningham, Eliot Rusk, Gyre Jaeger and Ian McLelland, earned a place in the finals by winning its heat with the third-best time overall.

In the two heats of the lightweight eight (another event without a semifinal stage), the Mount won its own flight by eight seconds. Still, there were two crews with times within four or five seconds of the Magic’s in the second heat. This didn’t worry the Mounties; these rivals were both out-of-state crews that the Mount had seen at Stotesbury and that had failed to make the finals there.

“We were confident about what we could do in the finals,” related senior coxswain Abby Schwenger, one of two Norwood Fontbonne Academy grads in the boat, along with junior MaryKate Ciolko.

“The group of girls we have is really committed,” the cox explained. “They’re very sharp technically, which is important for lightweights. They’re really eager and they’re very coachable.

“Our stern pair, Karson and Maddy are seniors who were in the boat last year,” Schwenger continued. “They helped us set our goals, which were to win Cities, win Stotes and win Nationals. The younger girls picked up on that and really got excited.”

In the SRAA semifinal round on Saturday morning, four of the area entries did not achieve the placing necessary to advance to the finals. These were the boys’ varsity single from GA, the girls’ light four from GFS, and the second eight and the varsity eight from Mount St. Joe’s.

The MSJ varsity, however, would be provided with one more opportunity to race. In their category there was a “petite” final consisting of the boats ranked seventh through 12th by their semifinal results. In this last race, the Magic V-8 placed sixth, while the petite was won by Stotesbury gold medalist National Cathedral Prep.

The finals were moved up from the original schedule to dodge the rain predicted for later on. As they got underway, the girls’ light double from SCH took the bronze medal behind Saratoga Springs (N.Y.) and Conestoga High School, while the GFS boys’ counterpart won silver behind Ridgewood (N.J.) High, beating out Friends Schools League rival Shipley School by half-a-second.

The Tigers soon seized a second medal when the boys in the JV double won bronze as a Florida duo made off with the gold. Two SCH quads could not quite reach the medal stand; the freshman girls caught a crab along the way and came in fifth, and the lightweight boys placed fourth.

The freshman and JV eights from the Mount finished up fourth and second, respectively. The silver medalist for the freshmen was timed only some six-tenths of a seconds ahead of the Magic. In the JV final Montclair (N.J.) High School, the fastest in the heat racing, claimed the gold medal in five minutes, four and 155/1000 seconds, while the Mount came in at 5:06.645 and Saratoga won the bronze in 5:09.821.

Describing the lightweight eight race, Mount St. Joseph’s Schwenger recounted, “We had a really strong start, and that was in our game plan because we knew that if anyone was serious about trying to beat us, they’d try to do it off the start. By 400 meters, we got open water on the other crews.”

The Mount won in 5:05.166, while the other medals went to upstate New York boats in 5:13.256 (Nardin) and 5:16.970 (Niskayuna).

GA’s Wescott, in her first major (or minor) regatta in the varsity single, came in sixth in her final. Wright was next up at the starting line, where things did not begin well for the Stanford-bound senior.

“The wind kind of blew my point off-course, so I was trying to correct it as they actually started all the crews. I kept up the high strokes for five or 10 more than usual, and that evened out the field.”

At the 2017 SRAA’s he had won the gold medal, but had almost been caught at the line by a competitor with a fierce late sprint. At this year’s Stotesbury, he had been passed in the final meters, by Karen.

Last weekend he’d opened up a gap on his rivals going into the last 100 meters, and as he closed out the race his manner reflected his determination to maintain his lead.

“I really wanted to keep that margin of water I had on the other boats right up to the line,” he said. “If you don’t, bad things can happen just in those last few seconds.”

He won the gold in 5:21.325, while Karen fought off Burns for the silver medal, 5:24.052 to 5:25.856.

The season is not quite over for the gold medalists from our area. The Mount lightweight eight will be crossing the country to race with top single school crews and club organizations at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships near Sacramento, Ca. In the fall, seniors Schwenger and Sandquist will be heading to the University of Miami, along with 2-V rower Sam Cordero. Healy will be rowing for Boston University.

Germantown Friends’ Wright will also compete at the Youth Nationals, which will be held June 8-10. The day after that, he’ll be in San Diego trying out for the U.S. Junior Worlds Team. He made the squad last year and raced in Lithuania in August; this year the world championships will be staged in the Czech Republic.