In a Penn Charter double, Jeremy McDavid (left) and Cesar Centeno stir up the Schuylkill during the fifth Manny Flick race. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The Manny Flick/Horvat rowing race series wrapped up last weekend, and area boys had to wait their turn on the course as the gender-split format had all of their races scheduled in the afternoon. Neither the competitors nor the hordes of burger-grilling spectators minded the wait, since the warm, slightly breezy weather on Sunday was a far cry from the gusty, chilly conditions that prevailed when the Kelly Drive races began back on March 16.

One of the first contests for the boys was a freshman quad event that had both Penn Charter and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy involved in a 10-boat head race. In this type of competition, the boats go down the course one-by-one and are then ranked according to their times.

The SCH quartet of (stroke to bow) Will Newbold, Damian Betancourt, Hudson Smith, and Michael Wrede placed sixth with a time of six minutes, 52.69 seconds, and one place behind, in 7:00.47, were PC’s Derek Magers, Stephen Flemming, Tristan Laurencio, and Joey Centeno.

Centeno’s brother, Cesar, raced in a JV double along with Jeremy McDavid, and this duo came in fifth of 13 entries in their class, turning in a time of 6:15.70. The last of the local boats in the head races was a JV quad sent out by the SCH Blue Devils. Riley Bakes, Rayan Bousso, John Funchion, and Callum Brazier wound up fifth in a field of 12 with a time of 5:54.79, and the fact that they were ranked ahead of rival Inter-Ac League crews from Malvern Prep and Haverford School was an added bonus.

After that, the format switched to regular multi-lane, side-by-side racing, with the entrants divided into several flights, when necessary.

First up was a Germantown Friends freshman, Andrea Bergella, who came in second in the boys gig/novice single in 8:25.34.

Later on, the best results from the area athletes were produced by two SCH varsity crews.

In what was clearly the fastest of three flights in the varsity double, the Blue Devils had Jamie MacEachern and Thomas Andrews finish third with a time of 6:53.62. Although the Blue Devils’ varsity four was not in one of the speediest sections in its category, a time of 6:00.60 netted second place for rowers Matt Miller, Carlen Veasey, Will Elliott, and Andrea Dragani and their coxswain, Nelson Crane.