Silver medal four leads CHA & Springfield crew

by TOM UTESCHER

The Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School crews have always been known as sculling programs, but it was a boat full of sweep rowers that shone brightest for the Blue Devils and Lions at the Stotesbury Regatta last weekend.

Chestnut Hill’s junior four earned a silver medal at the prestigious event, finishing the final race on Saturday in four minutes, 55.75 seconds to come in behind Mathews (4:51.22) and ahead of bronze medalist Grimsby (4:57.27). Mathews is a Virginia team which is also nicknamed The Blue Devils; Grimsby hails from Ontario, Canada.

The stroke in the Devils’ four, Jamie Baker, is a junior, as is the man in the two seat, Matt Weidemer. Number three Sam Lichmira and bow man Matt Lettner are both tenth graders. Another sophomore, Walt Wynne, puts his compact frame to good use for CHA. In addition to serving as coxswain in this silver medal four, he’s also a highly-successful lightweight wrestler for the Devils during the winter, and in his crew uniform he looks like he could’ve stepped right off the mat.

The junior four class at Stotesbury was extremely competitive, and in the Friday morning head races (in which crews qualify by time for the semifinal round), CHA clocked in second out of 57 participants. The locals posted the best time overall in the semifinals later that day, winning the second of the three heats to set the stage for their silver medal performance the following afternoon.

The combined crews would also earn bronze medals in both the boys and girls junior quad, while Springside’s senior quad earned fifth place in the finals and CHA’s junior double finished sixth.

All but two of the boats sent out by the Devils and Lions advanced to the semifinals; the senior single for Chestnut Hill and the lightweight four for Springside were unable to post sufficient qualifying times in the head races.

Friday’s weather was cold and rainy, making the locals crews especially happy to be rowing out of the University Barge Club instead of huddling under a tent next to a boat trailer, like the out-of-town teams. In between the head races and the semifinals, Springside coach Silke Brunner went beyond the call of duty by scooping up a few bushels of soggy uniforms and tossing them in the dryer at a nearby Laundromat.

Chestnut Hill’s senior double, manned by Adam Klotz and Dave Bayard, had moved on from the head races by turning in the ninth-best time of the 18 entries, but they finished fifth in the first of two semifinal races, and only the top three placers advanced.

In their girls junior double semifinal, Emily Winant and Sara Heinze of the Lions missed the cut by one spot, winding up fourth. They normally compete as a lightweight double and they were a bit undersized in this crowd, but they had been able to put up the eighth-best time in the head race field of 18 boats.

A third tandem, CHA’s Will Rhoda and Chris Pittman, went through to the finals in the boys junior double. Placing 6th of 18 crews in their head race, the Devil duo earned a trip to the championship race by coming in third in the second of two semifinal races. They finished up sixth in a tough final field on Saturday, clocking in at 5:14.13, while Haverford School won in 4:51.72.

In the boys junior quad, Tom Samph (stroke), Pete Jacobelli, Dave DiDonato, and Ryan Boutcher were the fastest quartet in the semifinal round, winning the second of two races by 1.89 seconds over Haverford. The Blue Devil foursome had started the regatta by placing fifth in a field of 15 in head racing.

North Allegheny, a strong sculling team from the Pittsburgh area, won Saturday’s final with a time of 4:37.23, a little over half-a-second faster than CHA had been in the semifinals. Malvern was second in 4:39.47, and CHA, crossing in four minutes, 40.07 seconds, beat out E.L. Crossley of Ontario (4:40.49) for the bronze medal.

Springside’s junior quad, gold medalist in the Philadelphia City Championships, started Stotesbury with the sixth-best time amongst 17 head race entries. Next, the Lions’ Nell Sorensen (stroke), Holly Cribbins, Sarah Souli, and Christine Giovanazzo (bow) placed second in the faster of the two semifinal contests to earn a place in the championship race.

In the final, Sacred Heart (5:17.32) beat out Conestoga (5:19.62) for top honors, but in a much closer sprint for the bronze medal, the Springsiders (5:22.17) edged Agnes Irwin (5:22.30).

The girls senior quad competition also began with 17 participants in the head race phase, and here the Lions’ Lucy Sorensen (stroke), Gia Palermo, Chrissie Valiga, and Julia Rorer (bow) were timed in fourth place. They came in second to North Allegheny in their semifinal, although their time was fifth overall.

As it turned out, there were also four faster boats in the finals, where the medals went to Irwin (5:13.85), North Allegheny (5:15.56) and Hockaday (5:17.99), of Dallas, TX. Fourth-place Notre Dame (5:23.07) was just ahead of Springside (5:23.62) and Friends Select was sixth in 5:29.17.