More than one person marveled at the quality of the finals at the Stotesbury Regatta in its 80th running this year; in fact, BS'ing between races out on the jetty at the NSR the next morning, a half-dozen national team coach types made the same comment. A sunny day and an insistent but manageable headwind with a little cross from starboard in it made for pleasant and very fair conditions; some of the Lane 6 complaints you hear on occasion were mitigated by a slight wind shadow that kept several finals very tight right to the line all the way across the river. One Schuylkill vet thought it may have been the ideal conditions for the course.
And of course the combination of eager youths, adoring friends and parents, and Clete Graham's gracious and thorough medal-presentation style can't be beat; Clete braked and hauled in every boat that came in a little hot or a little wide; shook the hand of every medalist; introduced every trophy presenter to the winning crew while providing a quick history of the provenance of each trophy; and kept things moving without nicking anyone's feelings.
But it was St. Augustine coach Ray D'Amico's gesture when he jumped down onto the dock to greet his boy's lightweight eight the first crew from the school to win Stotes gold that captured the strong feelings many have for the regatta. Ray hopped off the stone wall, and as soon as his feet hit the wood, he put his hands down and bent over and kissed the dock.
In the premier eights events, the Thomas Jefferson crew held off a surging Prep crew at the wire to recover the Stotesbury Cup they gave up last year, and tossed their coxswain in fine style, while Mount repeated as women's Stotes champions with five members of last year's crew still in the boat, and the other three seats filled by Stotes winners from last year's frosh and light crews.
The never-quit award goes to girl's single sculler Alyssa Perry, who kept leaning on the oars in second place until the leader (and time trial and heat winner) Laura Fisher from Holy Trinity flipped with 400 meters to go. Perry plowed into the lead for the gold.
And the boys 1x almost seemed misnamed when 6'8" David Wakulich of St. Catharine's climbed out of his single on the awards dock, but rest assured, he is a youngster; in fact, he is a junior in high school, so will be looking to return to the same dock next year.
The closest contest for the gold came in the boys senior quad, where Roman Catholic edged Malvern by about a foot. The two crews have been duking it out all spring on the river, comes down to a foot in May, whew.
All told, 27 champions were crowned, including the first-ever Adaptive Double, won by the crew from Hatboro-Horsham. Since adaptive rowing has been added to the Paralympic Games, we'll be seeing more and more similar events; no better place to start than high school.
Some gossip from the medals dock:
That's it for this year's Stotes; hope to see you on the docks at the 81st!
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