Stotes may end with the big boats, and the double sweep certainly was a big storyline this year as we covered in the Eights report, but this is a regatta that features some of the best and tightest racing for scholastic scullers, and the fours races served up a number of firsts as well.
The best first had to be the tie in the racing for the Bill Belden Trophy by the Boys' Light Fours: E. L. Crossly took the win, but the dogfight between hometown rivals St. Joe's Prep and LaSalle was too close to call even for the finish line camera, which times to the hundredth of a second. The super efficient medal and trophy brigade quickly swapped in a second set of silvers and, just like that, we had what Clete Graham was pretty sure is the first tie in the 96 years, and counting, of the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. It is certainly the first in the electronic timing era, since Graham has definitely seen all of those races.
Among the other firsts that we saw this year: Marietta High School from Ohio won its first medal ever, a bronze in the Girls Junior Four; Hun picked up its first medal in what the coaches figured has to be twenty years, a silver in the Boys Senior Four; not to be outdone, Nutley picked up their first medal in 70 years, a bronze in the Boys Junior Four; Norfolk Academy won its first event ever in that same Boys Junior Four final; Seton Hall Prep won its first as well, the Boys Junior Quad, which we will cover in more depth below; plus we caught a few schools, like St. Benedicts, breaking through to race in the Saturday afternoon finals for the first time.
One school that has been making those Saturday finals for a long successful stretch, Montclair, went (mostly) all in on the fours this year with their men, taking gold in the Second Four, silver in the Junior Four and getting the win in a very competitive Senior Four against Hun and St Joe's Prep that Head Coach Jeremy Michalitsianos said he was happy to win in the end. Montclair also won the Girl Lightweight Four and got a silver in the Girls Second Eight along with to spot they earned in the Senior Eight Final.
Now, let's hear from some scullers:
Senior Singles
When a singles race comes down to a look over your shoulder at the leader and then digging in to go for the win, you've earned your gold the exciting way, and Grace Moore was thrilled to be on the podium with her coaches. She took the lead in front of the grandstand, and pipped Elle Rosenfeld from Arizona by just 0.14 seconds. By contrast, Moore won Mid_Atlantics last week by 12 seconds over the local competition in her region. Canadian Ingrid Eshuis won the bronze.
"I noticed that she was she was ahead of me, and I was like, 'OK, time to sprint, time to power it out,'" said Moore. "I looked over and that kind of collected me. I just thought, 'I gotta go!'
"I won Mid Atlantic Regionals which was really great, and I've had a lot of wins," said Moore, when asked about her season so far. "I'm very excited to have raced all these girls. Today was the first time I really kicked in that sprinting gear and it was great."
The Boy's Single was a bit more comfortable up at the front for winner Allesio Perco from E.L. Crossly in Canada, and silver medalist Nate Harris from Ridgewood, but Collin Gross from Bonner-Prendergast snatched the bronze right at the line from Don Bosco's Tony Klar.
It was the kind of race that had Perco taking nothing for granted despite a comfortable margin at the end.
"I like to never count out anyone," he said. "You never know who is going to do a big sprint at the end."
Perco was watching the hot fight for third: "I saw that, it was fun.
"Our coach John Ruscitti is great: we're used to racing 2ks so we kind of just adapted it [for 1500]. They feel kind of the same, but obviously 1500 is shorter. So whenever you're doing little sprint pieces that you're doing during a 2k, you're just doing them a little bit more frequently in a 1500."
With Perco's gold, E. L. Crossley went 3 for 3 on Saturday also winning the Girls Junior Quad and the Boy's Light Four. They only entered three events, so that would be win in the Efficiency Trophy department, if there was one.
"Stotebury's definitely a fun experience," said Perco. "We haven't been here for four years, so coming back here and doing well was really good for us. Put a bit of mojo into our team."
Boys Senior Double
The Albermarle coach, Cathy Coffman, got to watch her Boy's Senior Double win from the best spot on the river: she was already on the medal dock with her silver medal-winning Girls Senior Double. That crew finished a close second to a Canadian duo from Churchill Secondary School.
The Boy's race was tight as well, but Cole Bruen and stroke seat Jack Lewis had that crucial final gear to get the win.
Bruen did an interview with row2k back in February when he won the Erg Sprints, so it was fun to catch him after another win on the other end of the season.
Bruen called it a good race, but admitted, "We're not the best at starts.
"We started down and we were really nervous about lane three [West Niagara] but then we got up on them and we were feeling good. Then I turned my head and lane two, Ridgwood is just ahead, and I thought, 'Jeez!'
"We kept with them and gained on them a little bit. But we get to the flags, and we're still down. That's when we just turned it on. We gave it everything. If you've ever seen the Kiwi double race at the 2012 Olympics, when they're like 20 meters down in the last 500, they just pick it up and destroy the competition? That's what it felt like for us, obviously, it's still high school, but that's what we felt.
"We passed them with 15 meters left," said Bruen, "so I could tell at the line. I thought, 'Oh, we're done. And we won!'"
"I'm really proud of them because this is really the first race they've had anybody within 15 seconds of them, whether it be the time trial or six boats across," said Coffman.
"They were in third or fourth place after the start on the video, and then to be behind the majority of the race and just to go at it in the sprint shows me that they, for one, wanted it, but two that they have listened to all their coaches and what we've been trying to work on all year long. We never had a chance to really test it until today. We've got big goals for the rest of the season, and we've got three more weeks to see how it goes."
The Quads
Another team making the most of a long trip by being efficient was The Hockaday School from Dallas, Texas: two wins, four medals and five finals with just six entries.
Head Coach Will Forteith called it a good day when we caught him on the dock for his Freshmen Quad's gold medals. "I'm very proud of the girls," he said.
Forteith, in his fifth year leading the program, said that coming to Stotesbury and doing well is something his team has been building towards. "In our region, a lot of the races are about clubs, so it's great to come here to a scholastic championship."
Hockaday's other win came in the Lightweight Double, and they collected silver in the Junior Double, bronze in the Junior Quad, and put the Senior Quad into the final, where they took 6th in a race won by local sculling powerhouse Conestoga.
On the men's side, Haverford won the Boy's Senior Quad, continuing a streak that started at the fourth Manny Flick and carried them to the title at Cities as well. It was also their second year in a row capturing the top quad prize at Stotes.
"We have a young group," said Head Coach Jon Stephanik about his Senior Quad. "All the guys in the boat are juniors and sophomores, and it's just a testament to them, taking advantage of what we've been doing on the water for practices and really putting in the hard work. It all shows right now.
"They go out there and compete every day in practice. They support one another just to get faster and hopefully it's proven on the race days."
The Haverford warm-up shirts had a quote from their longtime Coach Jim Barker who passed this year, so we asked Coach Stephanik about Coach Barker's continuing presence in their boathouse.
"With his passing over the past year, we wanted to make sure that we ingrained some of those traditions and some of the what Coach Barker meant to Haverford Rowing, and what his family meant to us, and then just go out there and prove it, and make sure that we represent him well."
In the Boy's Junior Quad, Seton Hall Prep broke through to win their first Stotes gold; after collecting a few medals last year, the Pirates got to climb out of their boat and up onto the podium this year.
"The boys have put in a lot of work," said head coach Richard Baird, "not just in this quad, but across the team. We made six semi-finals this year, put the Junior Eight and the Junior Quad into the Finals so we're really excited about the direction of the program and this is just punctuating all the hard work that's gone in across the board for everyone."
Notes from the Course
Still Made The Semis - the Boys Senior Quad from Ridgewood that snapped a blade mid-time trial in the sequence that starts here, still made the semis after getting a spare oar--tho the broken one bobbed in the river for a bit. row2k spotted at least four crews that hit it before officials got around to fishing it out.
Perks of Volunteering - Stotes runs on volunteers, and one perk of helping on the massive and well-run trophy squad--apart from being able to be under the cover of the Grandstand when it is a rather rainy race day? Having front seat to watch your son win a gold medal. That was the case for Erin Rooney, whose son Cormac took gold in the Junior Double for Malvern with his partner Luke Miller.
Parent Photogs Gone Wild - row2k counted as many 28 parent photographers on the Strawberry Mansion Bridge during the Time Trials, snapping pics to no doubt feed the Instagram feeds of kids and teams alike. Maybe one of these days we'll have to run a row2k parent photo contest!
The Decibel Award - that goes to Bishop O'Connell's cheering squad for the Girls Second Quad...who may have damaged a few ear drums and not even the full grandstand of Mount and Prep parents later in the afternoon came close.
Chip Maloney - rumors are that a famous Irishman named Chip was on hand to give out the Irish American Chamber Cup, but no one could find him afterwards to confirm.
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05/24/2023 10:33:02 AM