CHA, Springside crews mine precious medals at city champs

by TOM UTESCHER

Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School scullers enjoyed a highly-successful outing at the Philadelphia City Championships last Sunday, returning from the Schuylkill with a combined total of eight medals, including four golds.

For CHA, some sweep rowers got into the act, as well. The Blue Devils’ JV Four won its final, matching the gold medal finish of the two-oared types in the JV quad. The JV quad from Springside took top honors, too, and the Lions also struck gold in the novice gig.

Most of the boats from the two schools participated in head races to qualify for the finals, having to produce one of the top six times in order to advance to the final race in their respective categories. In other cases, a sparse field of participants allowed crews to forego a qualifying race and go right into the finals.

The latter scenario occurred in the girls novice gig, where sophomore Sarah Patches, a successful performer all year, won the gold medal in six minutes, 31.11 seconds. A second Springside entry in this class, Kathleen Trainor, came home with a bronze medal after finishing in 6:57.54.

The Lions’ second gold medal came from the JV Quad crewed by (stroke to bow) Nell Sorensen, Holly Cribbins, Sarah Souli, and Christine Giovinazzo. After posting the third-best time in their head race, almost five seconds off the lead, the jayvees turned it on to win the final in 5:27.01, nipping Friends Select by about half a second, while Conestoga was three seconds behind the Falcons.

Springside’s varsity quad also improved its fortunes over the course of the day, ranking fifth in its head race, but stepping up to a silver medal in the finals. A powerful Agnes Irwin quartet won in 5:18.29, while the Lions’ Lucy Sorensen, Gia Palermo, Chrissie Valiga, and Julia Rorer fought off a challenge from Sacred Heart alongside Peter’s Island to come in second at 5:23.93, almost three seconds ahead of Heart.

In the Lightweight Double, Springsiders Emily Winant and Sara Heinze just missed out on a medal, going straight into the finals and finishing fourth. The novice quad entered by the Lions reached the finals and came in sixth, while the lightweight four missed qualifying by finishing eighth in its head race, less than three-tenths of a second behind the sixth-place boat.

The CHA JV Four, one of the Devils’ top boats all spring, easily posted the best time in the head racing, as Walt Wynne (cox), Jamie Baker, Matt Wiedemer, Sam Lichmira, and Matt Letner clocked in more than six seconds ahead of their closest competitors. The final was closer, but they won out over Camden Catholic, 4:53.11 to 4:54.61, while St. Joe’s Prep was a close third in 4:55.17.

CHA’s JV quad actually competed as a varsity quad throughout the Manny Flick racing series this year, benefiting from strong competition. But in fact, the Devils’ Tom Samph, Pete Jacobelli, Dave DiDonato, and Ryan Boutcher are all juniors, and it was decided that they’d race against their true peers at Cities.

After topping Haverford by just under two seconds in the head race, Chestnut Hill outshone the Fords again in the finals, this time by a wider margin. The locals hit the wire in 4:37.81, while Haverford was second in 4:42.13, narrowly beating out third-place Roman Catholic (4:42.35).

Meanwhile, CHA’s Will Rhoda and Dave Bayard went straight into the finals in the lightweight double, where they earned a silver medal in 5:10.48. Malvern took gold in 5:03.72, and Haverford was third in 5:17.72.

Rhoda had raced for most of the season with Chris Pittman, but a dental emergency sidelined Pittman, so Bayard moved over from the Blue Devils’ varsity double. Bayard’s erstwhile partner, Adam Klotz, was joined in the varsity boat by Gardner Halloran, and they were able to earn a bronze medal for Chestnut Hill.

Two other CHA boats, the novice double and the novice quad, made it through to the finals, both finishing fifth.