The boys in the SCH freshman quad turn back toward Boathouse Row after receiving their bronze medals last Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

At the 2019 edition of the venerable Stotesbury Cup Regatta last weekend, Germantown Academy, Germantown Friends, Penn Charter and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy each had a number of boats advance out of the qualifying round on Friday. Many of them also got through to the finals on Saturday afternoon, but placing among the top three to earn a coveted Stotesbury medal would prove to be a real challenge.

The only boats to achieve the feat were a pair of freshman quads from SCH, which both brought home bronze medals. In the Blue Devils' girls' boat were Gaby Leon-Palfrey, Pere Jaeger, Ella Ward and Kaia McTigue, while the boys' craft contained Jack Stephenson, Charlie Miles, A.J. Topping and Sammy Meyer.

Billed as the nation's oldest and largest high school regatta, Stotesbury attracts so many schools that the number of racing categories is restricted, particularly for first-year rowers. In order to have young rowers experience the regatta, they may be entered in events where they race against more experienced athletes in highly competitive categories.

This took its toll on the four programs from GA, GFS, PC and SCH, which entered a total of 38 boats and had 19 advance beyond Friday's time trial head races. GFS had the highest percentage go through, qualifying seven of its 11 entries. The Tigers missed having an eighth boat advance by the narrowest of margins; in his senior single, Alec Sandroni was just two one-hundredths of a second off the pace of last sculler to qualify.

There was also a very near miss for PC, as its girls' junior quad – Amanda Cowhey, Alyssa Neducsin, Tia Yancey and Claudia Lopez-Ona – trailed the final boat to make the cut-off by a quarter of a second.

Early Friday morning, in the very first race of this sprawling affair, girls' junior doubles were trying to become one of the 12 boats to reach the semifinal round. PC's Gabby Mancini and Riley McDade made it with the sixth-fastest time, while Amory Park and Megan Hua of GFS scooped up the last spot, finishing 12th.

With many more entries in the boys' junior double, 18 boats would advance into three six-boat semifinal races. Easily making the grade were GFS' Robert May and Jekeun Jung in sixth, Gyre Jaeger and Ian McClelland of SCH in eighth and GA's Andreas Moeller and Alex Walkush in the 10th spot.

GFS had two seventh-place qualifiers in the lightweight doubles, Amelia Sanchirico and Isabel Mehta in the girls' event and Raz Allon and Finn Kassell Osborne for the boys. The second-fastest time in the boys' qualifier belonged to the SCH duo of Elliott Cunningham and Eliot Rusk.

The SCH Blue Devils had its boys' freshman quad qualify fourth, while the PC entry – Philip Price, Jakob Lanfranco, Tyler Mangan and Billy Kopf – placed 11th out of the 12 quartets that moved on. On the girls' side in this category, the third-best time was turned in by SCH.

The quickest dozen would also be the ones to move on in the senior double events. For the girls, PC – Sydney Nixon and Lucy Alter – and GFS – Sophia Ortega and Evelyn Anderson – finished close together in 10th and 11th place, and in the boys' qualifier, PC – Cole Frieman and Matt Groshens – earned the third-place time while GFS – Doulin Appleberry and Owen Keim – was sixth.

Coach Steve McGuinn congratulates members of the SCH girls' freshman quad, bronze medalists at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Eighth among the 12 girls' senior quads to qualify was the GA vessel powered by Maylin Lindsey, Elizabeth Berlinger, Lauren Paynton and Lily Richards.

In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, the last area qualifiers were in the senior singles events. Timed ninth, GA's Derek Walkush went through, and in the girls' head race, PC's Julia Veith was fourth and GFS' Annika Ehrlacher was fifth.

Some of the first boats to qualify on Friday morning were back at it in semifinal races late in the afternoon. The top three in each of the two girls' junior doubles semi's reached the finals, and PC made it through by placing third in the second section. Only the top two in each of three boys' semifinals kept going, and this included the GFS boat, the runner-up in the first semifinal.

The SCH boys earned second-place in their freshman quad semifinal, and the freshman girls for the Blue Devils did the same thing. That gave SCH its first two finalists as Friday's racing came to an end.

Early Saturday morning, SCH also had the only lightweight double from the area to reach the finals, with the boys' boat winning the second of two semifinal races. The two girls' senior doubles from area schools ended their weekend in the semifinals, but in the second of the boys' semifinals in this category, GFS came in second and PC was third. Both went on to the final round.

There were three semifinal races in the boys' senior singles, and the top two in each race would make the finals, while the third and fourth-place boats would get to race again in "petite" final. This race essentially included the second six boats out of the 18 semifinalists. GA's Walkush got into the petite by placing third in semifinal number three.

The last two area finalists made it in the girls' senior single. In the same semifinal race (the first), PC's Veith and GFS' Ehrlacher came in second and third, respectively. With only two semifinal races here, the top three in each race went to the main final, and the next three went to a petite.

For the start of Stotesbury's final round at 1 p.m. on Saturday, the two area lightweight doubles were positioned in lane six, where the waters are roughed up alongside Peters Island and are known to make for slow going. Sixth-place outcomes were the result for PC's Mancini and McDade in the girls' race and GFS' May and Jung in the boys' event. The gold medals went to duos from upstate New York and Ontario, Canada, respectively.

The same Canadian school, E.L. Crossley, was victorious in the boys' lightweight double, where Cunningham and Rusk of SCH came in fourth, 1.76 seconds behind the bronze medalists from Virginia.

The next two SCH entries, the two freshman quads, were able to make the trip to the awards dock. Shenendahowa from upstate New York won the boys' contest by several lengths, while, among a group of several crews vying for silver, one of the contenders caught a crab and almost reached a standstill. Haverford School came across for the silver in 4:50.25, and the Blue Devils' quartet got the bronze medal in 4:51.92.

The medalists in the girls' race finished about one length apart, with the rest of the pack farther back. The SCH girls won the bronze comfortably, more than five seconds ahead of the fourth-place boat.

The next area finalists didn't come downriver until after 4 p.m., when the boys' senior doubles left the starting line. In a spread-out field, Conestoga High School won by open water, while Appleberry and Keim of GFS were in fourth, about three seconds behind the bronze medal boat. Over in lane six, PC's Frieman and Groshens came in sixth.

After GA's Walkush finished third in the boys' senior single petite final, the girls' senior single main final wrapped up the racing for area scullers. An Ontario entrant had been the fastest qualifier, but a rower from Hilliard Bradley High in central Ohio came away with the gold medal. Veith finished fourth for PC, and Ehrlacher came in sixth for GFS.