Springside strikes silver at Stotesbury
by TOM UTESCHER
Because there were no novice-class races on
the Schuylkill on May 14 and 15, about a third of the rowers
for Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School sat idle during
the 2004 Stotesbury Regatta. The good news is that all seven
boats that did race for the two schools advanced out of the
qualifying round on the morning of the 14th, and
one of them, Springside's JV quad, won its semifinal and went
on to earn a silver medal in the championship race.
Since there were fewer entries in the senior
quad category, the varsity boats for both CHA and Springside
went straight from qualifying into the finals, and each finished
fifth.
Springside juniors Julia Rorer (bow) and Chrissie
Valiga (stroke) are the veterans in the Lions' JV quad, which
won a bronze medal at Stotesbury last year. This year junior
Lucy Sorenson (three seat) and sophomore Gia Palermo (two)
came into the boat, which took second place in the Philadelphia
City Championships back on May 2.
"They're just the most determined little bunch
of girls," Springside coach Silke Brunner said of the compact
quartet. "That's what makes them go as fast as they do, because
they're certainly not rower-size."
For the last month or so, Springside's chief
competition in this class has come from a group of much larger
Agnes Irwin oarswomen.
"We rowed against Irwin in the last Manny Flick
race and when we saw them for the first time we said These
girls are huge,' " Valiga remembered.
After posting the third-fastest time in the
Stotesbury qualifying races, the Lions won the second of the
two semifinal contests, with the best time overall. In the
final Agnes Irwin, the city champion, again proved to be the
Lions' nemesis, winning in five minutes, 47.33 seconds, while
Springside was second in 5:50.84 and Sacred Heart was third
in 5:54.40.
"I remember when we crossed the finish line
my legs were tingling and I couldn't really feel them," Vailga
related. "Gia said she couldn't feel her face. That's what
a Stotesbury final does to you."
Headwinds picked up during the championship
round and were a particular handicap to the physically smaller
crews. The Lions' varsity quad, also on the small side, was
affected. The Springside foursome of Kara Daddario, Julia
Bartolomeo, Ashley Nikoo and Susanne Brackin posted the fifth-best
time in qualifying (5:26.60) and they came in fifth in the
final, as well, clocking in at 5:51.15.
In addition to competing against area rivals
Conestoga (2nd) and Baldwin (4th), the
locals had to contend with Episcopal Academy from Dallas,
TX (the winner in 5:31.41) and a Canadian entry, Governor
Simcoe (3rd).
Springside's lightweight four crew (Ariana Annastasiades
[cox], Katie Bolton, Laura Schankel, Laura Fernandez and Elizabeth
Kozemchak)
made it past the qualifying round only to miss
a trip to the finals by one place, as they finished third
in one of the three semifinal races. Their time in the semis
was seventh overall, at 6:42.14. In the JV double, the Lions'
Katy Prejsnar and Holly Cribbins also made it through qualifying
and were stopped in the semis.
The gusty conditions late in the second day
of Stotesbury were also noted by CHA's rowers.
"There wasn't much chop on the water," reported
senior Pete Seymour, who strokes the varsity quad, "but there
were headwinds on Saturday that were fairly tough to row against,
as opposed to a slight tailwind on Friday for the qualifiers."
About a week before the regatta, Seymour and
longtime senior boatmates John Bown (three seat) and Tom Simone
(two) began practicing with a new bow man, junior Dave Bayard.
They earned a place in the Stotesbury final by putting up
the fourth fastest time (4:41.61) in the qualifying round.
Malvern had the fastest qualifying time, but the following
day it was a third Inter-Ac school, Haverford, which won the
final in 5:00.42. Malvern was second, followed by Roman Catholic,
North Allegheny (Pittsburgh), CHA (5:19.44) and Christchurch
(VA).
Chestnut Hill's JV double (Brendon Ardieta and
Gardner Halloran) and JV Quad (Tom Samph, Pete Jacobelli,
Matt Wiedemer and Dave DiDonato) both turned in the tenth-fastest
times in their qualifying contests to advance in the regatta.
Each boat ran up against stiff competition in the semi's,
however, and were unable to move into the final round.
All of the CHA and Springside boats, with the
exception of the Lions' varsity quad, are heading to Florida
this weekend for the SRAA National Championships. Each boat
was making some final adjustments in the practices following
Stotesbury.
"Before Stotes, we were working on short pieces,
bursts, but now we've been doing more distance work," revealed
Seymour, who will enter Ohio's Marietta College next fall.
"We're doing mostly 1000-meter and 1500-meter pieces, and
we're establishing a good base rating (the stroke rate used
through most of a race until the final sprint)."
The Blue Devils and Lions got a look at a number
of out-of-town crews during the Stotesbury Regatta, and there
shouldn't be any "dark horse" entries at the SRAA's.
"We probably won't see any really strong crews
that we haven't already raced against," Seymour said.
UPDATE: On May 29 Seymour's CHA varsity quad
took the bronze medal at the national championships in Orlando,
FL. The Blue Devils came in second in one of the two semifinal
races, with the second-fastest time overall. They recorded
a time of 5:07.03 in the finals, coming in behind Malvern
Prep (5:00.02) and Roman Catholic and ahead of Haverford and
Conestoga. Rowing in a junior single, CHA's Gardner Halloran
was third in his semifinal contest, and sixth in the championship
race.
Meanwhile, Springside's junior quad acquired
another silver medal to match its Stotesbury Regatta award.
No preliminary rounds were held in this category, and in an
all-Philadelphia area final Springside (6:09.05) was runner-up
to Agnes Irwin (6:02.03), while Conestoga (6:14.08), Notre
Dame and Sacred Heart placed third through fifth.
In the junior double, Prejsnar and Cribbins
advanced to the finals with a second-place effort in their
qualifying heat, and the duo finished fifth in the championship
round in 7:03.03. Hampered by a pre-race injury and a case
of heat exhaustion, Springside's lightweight four was eliminated
in the qualifying round.
