FOR SARATOGA ROWING EIGHT MEDALS IS ENOUGH
Historic and dramatic finishes cap SRAA national championship regatta trip
PENNSAUKEN, N.J. » The Saratoga Rowing Association boathouse on Union Avenue on the shore of Fish Creek will have to make more room for photos and medals at the local rowing organization rowed to two national championships Saturday afternoon on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, NJ at the annual Scholastic Rowing Association of America national championship regatta.
The blue-clad rowers with their names emblazoned up the side of each rower sliding in their racing shells on the 1,500-meter six-lane course earned eight medals overall with boathouse teammates from Christian Brothers Academy and Fort Plain adding to the organization’s haul.
Not to be outdone, local rivals Shenendehowa and Niskayuna rowed to gold medals along with the Augustine Classical Academy earning a bronze medal bringing more than 13 medals back to the Capital Region.
The SRA girls varsity eight of coxswain Grace Wales and rowers Bradley Martin, Zoe Hasbrouck, Megan Varcoe, Helaina Howe, Olivia Dolan, Stella Haley, Madalyn Rascoe and Catherine Pazderski closed out Saturday afternoon’s championship racing with a four-second win over Winter Park (Florida) and six second win over Loyola Academy (Chicago), covering the 1,500-meter course in 4 minutes, 51.472 seconds.
“It was probably one of the best races in my life and I think from the start we just were rowing together as one mind, knowing we could do this, I know we could do this,” Saratoga Springs senior Helaina Howe said. “We all in the back of our minds said ‘We’re going to do this.’
“It was a crazy, fast race, even Cat (Head Coach Eric Catalano) said we’ve never done a race like this before. It was so fast.”
The Saratoga varsity eight captured its opening heat in 5:54.946 as the top-seeded boat in the category with a significant tailwind Friday afternoon. The group then re-
turned to the Cooper River on a much calmer morning Saturday to drop 54 seconds off of their time in the semifinal, edging out Winter Park by three seconds in the semifinal as both advanced. On Saturday afternoon, the Saratoga shell almost matched its gold-medal time of 2013 of 4:51.337 also on the Cooper River.
Joining the girls varsity eight with the top precious medal of the regatta was the Saratoga Rowing Association boys JV quad of Peter Hoffman, Joseph Bokan, Payton Young and Daniel Signor.
The four rowers, utilizing a pair of oars each navigated the course without the assistance of a coxswain in their respective category won by three seconds over Plant High School (Tampa) and Skyline (Ann Arbor, Michigan) that battled to the line for the secondary spots.
The Shenendehowa boys varsity double of Michael Campone and Joshua Freitas snared the top prize in the second leg of the high school version of rowing’s Triple Crown.
Last week the duo won their category at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia and then rowed to a four-second win over Malvern Preparatory School (Pennsylvania) on Saturday for their second crown in eight days. They will now prepare for the US Rowing Youth Invitational in Sarasota, Fla. June 9-11.
“We started good and strong off the start, that was our goal going into this was getting a good start because last time at Stotesbury, Malvern got a really good start at the beginning so we tried to get out in front of them for the lead this time,” Michael Campone said.
Freitas, a junior at Shenendehowa, never had a doubt about gold.
“By 500 (meters) in we were significantly ahead, they’re bow ball was on me by 750 we bow deck to stern deck (boat length lead) and at that point I told Mike ‘Get open water on them,’” Joshua Freitas said. “I knew we were going to win by the time we were at 500. I knew there was no way they could catch up unless we screwed up.”
Making history for Christian Brothers Academy was the boys junior double of Saratoga Springs resident Soren Mercer and Clifton Park resident Alexander Decker rowing to a silver medal behind E.L. Crossley (Fonthill, Ontario) and in front of Malvern Prep.
The CBA double made history two weeks ago, becoming the first Christian Brothers Academy (Albany) squad to row to a New York State Scholastic Rowing Association medal and also qualifying for the weekend’s national high school event.
The Niskayuna girls freshman quad of Madeleine Castle, Fairuz Abad-Neagu, Sarah Tessier and Jordan Meade out-dueled Conestoga (Pennsylvania) and rival Saratoga to the line for its lone gold medal of the weekend winning by three seconds. The SRA entry of Aisling Byrne, Lauren Hegener, Isabella Bokan and Joanna Dalton finished five seconds behind the Niskayuna entry for a bronze medal.
The SRA girls freshman eight of coxswain Grace Goodell, Kathryn Cuneo, Olivia Vavasour, Quinn McNary, Olivia Zwickle, Sarah Signor, Maecy Rickman, Analiese Meidenbauer and Caroline Grabowski couldn’t solve the speed of New Trier High School (Winnetka, Illinois), finishing in second place, less than three seconds behind the gold medal winner. Saratoga had bested New Trier three times in the final over the past four years for the gold medal.
Northeastern-bound Helaina Howe can appreciate the feeling of a silver medal, losing to New Trier last year in the varsity eight category by 3/10ths of a second.
“You know that maybe if I could have pulled a little bit harder we could have come in first, or if this was different we could have come in first,” Howe said. “You always have those what ifs, what ifs in the back of your mind.”
The SRA girls second varsity eight of coxswain Lucy Mastrianni along with rowers Delaney Kilcullen, Emily Dweck, Gwenn Taylor, Madeleine Macy, Brianna Bolen, Skylar Capello, Claire Campbell and Kendall Kane had one of the most dramatic bronze-medal finishes in the program’s history.
With less than three meters to go to the finish line, chasing Montclair (New Jersey) and looking to hold off Winter Park (Florida), the steering equipment failed and Winter Park’s shell shifted left within its lane and clashed oars with Saratoga. The boats were so intertwined they both came to a near stop and then battled to get unencumbered and make their way across the finish line as the race continued.
A protest was filed on the water by both teams and the finish was not declared official until both teams came off the water and discussed the finish with the head referee. When completed Saratoga was awarded thirdplace and Winter Park was excluded from the finish results.
The Saratoga Rowing boys freshman eight of coxswain Nicholas Dahlen and rowers Kurt Meidenbauer, Matthew Dahlen, Michael Pazderski, James Arthur, Quentin Grieco, Cole Dennis, Maximus Tetu and Karl Meidenbauer finished three seconds behind Redwood High (California) and in front of St. Joseph’s Prep (Philadelphia) for a silver medal.
The SRA girls lightweight four of coxswain Sydney Klotz and rowers Madeline Dodd, Kathryn Grabowski, Catharine Griskowitz and Paige Benfer can appreciate that they are the fastest U.S. team in their category, being edged out E.L. Crossley from Ontario, finishing with a silver medal. They did beat out Buffalo-based Nichols School by almost eight seconds across the line in third.
The Saratoga Rowing boys lightweight quad of Benjamin Weatherwax, Maxwell Boivin, Cole Levy and Alexandar Fragomeni finished three seconds behind gold-medal winning Brophy (Tempe, Arizona) and in four seconds in front of Belen Jesuit (Miami) to claim silver.
Rowing out of the Saratoga Rowing Association boathouse and representing Fort Plain High School Emory Sammons battled Germantown Friends (Philadelphia) varsity single James Wright down the 1,500-meter course, pushing his own limits with a dramatic sprint in the last 50-meters and appearing to cross the finish line simultaneously.
Both rowers thought Sammons had the momentum, but three high-speed finish line cameras recorded Wright finishing in second by 8/100ths of a second, his second consecutive silver medal finish at the SRAA national championship regatta.
Also winning locally was the girls JV double of Catherine Lynip and Lucia Hopkins who earned a bronze medal, edged out by Ransom Everglades (Florida) and gold-medal winning entry Freemont.
Saratoga Rowing sent 11 Saratoga Springs High School rowing entries into the finals, earning eight medals along with the CBA, Fort Plain, Schuylerville single of Emily Swenson and Shaker double of Allyson Matrassi and Michaela Gundrum who finished out of top three finishers.