In addition to our eights report, row2k caught up with the winners of the Senior Singles, and a few of the crews with great "Stotes stories" as they stepped onto the medal dock at the 97th Stotesbury Cup Regatta.
Liam Shapland - Boy's Senior Single Champ
When predicting how any sculling race at Stotes might go, a good question to ask is: how many Canadian schools are entered? That held true in a few events, including the Boy's Senior Single, where E.L. Crossley's Liam Shapland took the win.
Shapland pulled away from the really game effort that Virginian State champ Tony Madigan from Wakefield HS threw at him, and was thrilled to win the trophy his Crossley teammate Allesio Perco captured last year.
"Allesio's at university and he's been texting me the whole time, telling me 'good job,'" Shapland said. "He's definitely proud and I'm proud to represent him. We are such great friends so to bring this back to our boathouse means a lot."
Coming down to Philly meant racing a lot of new faces for Shapland, who said the racing was tough.
"I won the time trial by quite a bit, but then coming to the final, where I see all the same people, was a pretty big scare and I was down off the start. I just had to trust my training. We do a lot of distance, so I know that my base pace is extremely strong."
Last year, Shapland was in the Crossley Lightweight Four that won, but switched to the single this year.
"I'm still growing, so I couldn't do it again," he said, but now he has goals in the single.
"I'm going to race at Canadian Nationals and I'm going to actually race the lightweight single there because our lightweight in Canada is a little heavier than here.
"Stotesbury is huge for us," Shapland said, when we asked him why the Canadian schools make the trek. The Girl's Singles Final had just finished, and he pointed out at the course as he answered.
"The two scullers that just came through in second and third, they're from 15 minutes away from me. We love coming to Stotesbury. It's such a great regatta with all the events. It means so much to us and it's really well put on."
Grace Moore - Girls Senior Single Champ, Again
Grace Moore won the Senior Single for a second straight year, adding to a resume that includes wins at the Gold Cup Regatta last fall through her gold at the Mid Atlantic Youth Championship the week before.
One of the first things Moore did when she got her hands back on the trophy, was to start reading the other names.
"I looked," she said to her coaches, "but I couldn't find anyone else who's won it twice."
Even Clete Graham, the Stotesbury's living encyclopedia who visits with each winner to tell the story of the trophy they are holding was stumped...and for good reason: there haven't been many, so just by winning twice, Moore is in rarified air.
How rarified? Well, one of the small handful of two-time winners Moore joined just happens to be Caryn Davies, the two time Olympic champion and 4 time World Champion, who started doing some multiple-winning right here at the Stotes, in 1999 and 2000.
"I've been working on rate," Moore said about how she has been upping her game to repeat her at Stotes. Last year, she won by just 0.14 seconds, but this year she put nearly 10 seconds into the field.
"I rowed at Fairmount over the summer and Mr Konopka really helped with that, and Coach Jess Crosby at Newport has been really wonderful, helping me get my technique down. It's honestly just a lot of higher rates and making sure I'm working on my core."
"As I go on, I'm getting more race experience, which is really great, and this was a fast race today."
Moore, who already qualified for Youth Nats with a win at Mid-Atantics, also plans to race a double at US Junior Trials this summer, with Fairmount.
"I'm going to do a double with my friend Grace Murphy, which is great. She's my best friend so I'm really looking forward to that."
When we asked the champ what she might be planning to work on ahead of Youth and Trials, she answered in one word, with a knowing laugh:
"Sprinting."
Another Stotes 'Who Won?' Moment
While not as close as the great Stotes tie of 2023, this Boy's Junior Doubles final between E.L. Crossly, Western Albermarle, and Ridgewood was pretty tight:
So close in fact that the crews drifted towards the bridge not really sure who had taken the win.
"We had an idea, but it was too close," said Crossley bow man Noah Paquin, who said they had never had a race like that before.
"All three of our races, the time trial, the semis, and the final, we were all within a second of each other," said stroke man Lucas Riddle. "Even though we were in different races and we weren't neck and neck [until the final], all three of these boats were really, really close.
"In the semis, we were 0.03 ahead of Western Albermarle," added Paquin.
The Crossley boys won the final by a comparatively cozy 0.2 seconds, but it made for a great race, and the two made sure to go over and shake hands with the other boat as soon as they got out on the medals dock, before picking up their golds.
Getting it Together, For Prom
The Ocean City HS Second Eight had a little extra motivation to get to the finish quickly when they won their bronze medals behind Mount Saint Joe's and Bethesda-Chevy Chase: they had to get back to The Shore for prom.
"We finally clicked because we had to get it together and go to prom," laughed 7 seat Callie Bellwoar, "and that lead us to our first Stotesbury medal."
"It's really awesome," added six seat Reese Powell about winning a medal in her senior year. "I've been rowing for four years and we've never really gotten close to this. I have to give all my thanks to our coach Colin Stewart. He came along and really helped our program in so many ways. And I have to thank my boatmates and my coxswain because we all smashed the past couple of weeks and it's been insane."
Then they were off, because we all know how bad Shore traffic can get on the Atlantic City Expressway, and Prom wasn't going to wait.
Getting Together, Because of Prom
The inevitable mid-May 'Stotes or Prom' dilemma impacted Wakefield too, but they made the most of missing the seniors on the team who stayed home for prom.
When the older athletes who helped Wakefield win the 1st and 2nd Eight at the Virginia State Championship this year could not make the trip, Wakefield put together a Junior eight and wound up winning Stotes gold as well.
"We put this junior eight together pretty last minute last week and this is a group of incredible people who worked so hard this season," said stroke seat Mira Meek. "Wakefield is such an incredible program. We've been winning so much. We're undefeated right now in our whole season and we're excited to be at SRAAs next weekend in our 1V eight.
"Our Head Coach, Russell Topp, is the supercenter of Wakefield Crew," Meek added. "From suddenly stepping up to the role in 2023, he is why our 1V8 holds a 4-year state title and why we won the Cup today. Russell Topp is the lifeblood of Wakefield Crew and recognition of his work is overdue!"
Keeping Hold of the Barker Cup
Haverford's Light Double won the Barker Cup again this year, the trophy named for the long time Haverford sculling coach who passed away in 2022.
"His name is all over our boathouse, so it means a lot just to represent the program and be able to win a trophy named after him," said stroke Ethan Lee, who was also in the crew that won last year.
"It's a great race.," the two time champ said. "I really enjoy rowing this race. Last year, I won it with Evan Wang, and the competition definitely was not as close as this year. So it feels great to bring it back home again, especially with the upgraded trophy they had this year."
The race was tighter this year, with Churchill and Manhasset hot on Haverford's heels at the line, and Lee's new boatmate Casey Williams gave us his take from the bow seat.
"The first thing I noticed was Manhasset came out strong," Williams said. "They're a great team to race but we've beaten them the past few races so it was really surprising and honestly a little scary. But we trusted that our base was going to carry us to the finish line and it was really exciting. Definitely the hardest I've pulled and it was just a ton of adrenaline."
Chasing All the Way to Gold
For Brooke Thompson, bow seat of the Lake Brantley Lightweight Four, winning the Stotesbury this year was the culmination of a three year quest, and climbing from bronze to silver to gold. She was in all three crews.
"Rowing to me is all about following the chase. Going third place then second and then doing all this work to come to first," she said, as the crew celebrated finally winning the event this year.
In all, three of the athletes in the crew carried over from the silver medal winner last year, and we asked Thompson what she thought was the key to bringing it all together this year.
"Press harder," she said, as she left the podium with her Stotes gold.
Doubling Down in the Double
"Nerve-wracking" was how Lucas Guerra, bow seat of the Albemarle Senior Double described the feeling of coming up to race a tough double field at the Stotes, even as fast crew that had won gold at Virginia States.
"It's just a whole different level. Back home, there isn't the greatest amount of competition for us, but these guys out here are nuts," said Guerra. "Christian Brothers were point four seconds behind us in the time trial. They were real scary."
The win was a second in a row for Albemarle in this event, and stroke Jack Lewis was in both boats. Last year, Lewis mounted a charge that got that boat the lead in the closing strokes, and this year with Guerra, the crew led the race down the Island and the sprint was just there to seal it up.
Lewis said the key to the piece was consistency. "We took the start at what we hoped was fast and then tried to pull ourselves through to the sprint," said Lewis.
"The only thing that was running through my mind was I'm not going to let the last few months of blood, sweat, and tears go away," added Guerra about their closing strokes.
Three in a Row for Blair
Blair Academy won Girls Senior Four for the third year in a row, with several athletes getting a chance to pick up a second gold as part of the school's streak.
"Believing is our tactic," said coxswain Aleksa Bazylevsky. "Believing and trusting each other and our practice. We really are proud of our plan. It's very customized just to the five of us and we find a lot of success in it."
When asked about the key to their success, the crew was quick--and unanimous--in crediting their coach, John Redos.
"It's Mr Redos, and our belief, said Allister Wolff, who stroked the boat's last two wins. "We believe in ourselves. We have are really good team culture and we all support each other. We don't expect anything and we're grateful for everything."
The Four was a Charm for BCC
BCC, long an eights school at the Stotes went small, and fast, this year in the fours. After Coach Zalyn Bajor realized he might get better training and racing by putting his V8 into two fours based the size of the team this year, BCC was right back to winning hardware.
Two of the guys in the BCC Senior Four that made it all the way to the front of the pack and the top of the podium had been here once before: stroke seat Robert Palmer and bowman Aiden Spellacy-Urken won as sophomores in the Second Eight back in 2022.
"It's an honor," said Palmer when asked about winning a second Stotes gold, "and I'm so grateful to be able to do with these guys. It's really something special, especially knowing how historic an event it is. It feels good to be able to win it twice."
Spellacy-Urken admitted it felt a little different winning Stotes in a four compared to the eight, but some things stayed the same.
"A lot of it felt like deja vu," he said. "Sophomore year, we had the similar thing happen: coming down the final 300 we were ahead, and Prep was walking on us then, and was walking us now. Both times, I thought it was completely over, but everyone realized it and doubled and redoubled their effort and both times we came up here to the medal dock. It was great. It felt amazing.
Three seat Findley Hartzell just started rowing a little over a year ago, finally following his dad into the sport. He was quick to credit his boatmates for making him a Stotes Champ in such short order.
"It's really just up to the rest of the guys. I didn't do too much," said Hartzell, though folks watching the amount of bend on his oar as the boat raced by might disagree.
"It takes a lot of hard work," he said, which suggests he's already learned most of what you need to know in the sport.
But Hartzell was so excited about medalling that he did almost forget his spiffy red hat on the dock.
Notes From the Course
Congrats on Winning...HOSR? - eagle-eyed folks may have spotted a wide variety of medals in this year's Stotesbury galleries, and there were indeed some kids leaving the dock with medals from the Head of the Schuylkill, the Philly Youth Regatta, and more--all thanks to one box of Stotes medals that went missing. The crack medals dock staff broke out all the spare, left-over medals they could find so everyone still got hardware on the day...and the stand-in medals will become fun souvenirs once the regatta mails each school actual Stotesbury ones. The leading dad joke on the dock for kids getting HOSR medals went something like this: "Hey, now you don't have to come back and race this fall."
Accessorizing Is In - a partial list: crazy sunglasses, shark socks (two kinds!), rubber ducky socks, 'Hello Kitty' hats, and of course, the ultimate regatta accessory: Augustine Classical Academy's inflatable hippo.
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