July 5, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local rowers perform at Independence Day Regatta
by TOM UTESCHER

Meg Kehan, a rising senior at Mount St. Joesph Academy, rows the two seat in the U.S. Developmental Camp’s Intermediate Four, which finished second at the Independence Day Regatta

The uniforms were different, but the faces were familiar along Kelly Drive last weekend, when a number of area rowers raced in everything from a sculling double to sweep eights at the Independence Day Regatta.

Last year, downpours that flooded the Schuylkill forced the cancellation of the event, but this year competitors started off on an overcast and muggy Friday and then enjoyed two beautiful days of characterized by sunshine temperatures around 80 degrees and relatively low humidity.

Three rising seniors from Mount St. Joseph Academy, rowers Meg Kehan and Lawren Kieffer and coxswain Devon Stewart, came down from the U.S. Rowing national team camps in Connecticut to participate in the IDR.

A Springside School sculler, senior Carolyn Chisholm, switched to sweeping for the weekend to team up with some Mount athletes in a four that raced under the aegis of the Whitemarsh Boat Club. Whitemarsh, which shares the Conshohocken site where the Mount program is based, also entered an eight staffed by MSJ crew members.

This summer, the Mount Magic are represented at each level of the three-tiered junior national program’s “camp” system. Rising junior Mary McGinnis is among the younger rowers at the Development “B” Camp, whose members did not come down to the IDR. The Development “A” group features athletes with more experience, such as Kieffer and Kehan.

A Whitemarsh Boat Club crew made up of local athletes finished fourth in the Junior Four at the Independence Day Regatta last weekend. The rowers are (left to right) Erika McCormick, Emma Brown, Carolyn Chisholm, and Megan Schluckebier. All are Mount St. Joseph students except for Chisholm, who attends Springside School.

In the third category are the participants in the National Selection Camp, from whose ranks come the athletes who represent the U.S. in international competition each year. The junior national team eight will compete at the 2007 World Championships in Beijing this August, while MSJ’s Stewart has been picked for the second U.S. eight, the designated “High Performance” (HP) boat that will travel to training sessions in Berlin later this month.

An event such as the IDR gives the national team coaches an opportunity to conduct some line-up experiments in actual competition, and various campers may find themselves in different types of vessels during the weekend. Kehan started off on Friday in a double, a sculling craft that was unfamiliar to her. Paired up with Melissa Sloan, of St. Louis, she finished third in one of three heats in the junior double, missing the cut for the finals by one place. The top two spots went to full-time scullers from the South Jersey Rowing Club and Bachelors Boat Club.

On Sunday, Kehan was in the bow seat of a four that raced in the intermediate category, which may include older club rowers. They won their heat at 9:00 AM, then came back just two hours later to place second in the finals. Riverside Boat Club of Cambridge, MA won in seven miniutes, 22.60 seconds (2000 meters) and the U.S. junior boat was second in 7:27.25, while a New York Athletic Club entry was third in 7:33.02.

On Friday and Saturday, Kieffer got to race against her MSJ schoolmates in both the Whitemarsh junior four and junior eight.

Springside’s Chisholm rowed in the bow seat of the Whitemarsh four, a crew that was filled out by four Mounties; senior Megan Schluckebier (stroke), juniors Emma Brown (two) and Erika McCormick (three), and sophomore Alex Vandergrift (cox). In the first of the two heats (top three advanced to the finals), Kieffer’s crew won and Whitemarsh placed third. Another U.S. four was the winner of the second heat. This boat went on to win the finals on Saturday in 7:29.85, while Kieffer’s boat, which had a steering glitch and struck a buoy, finished second in 7:36.82.

Whitemarsh, fourth in 7:46.60, came in behind the Thames River (Conn.) Sculls (7:43.99) and ahead of Virginia’s Mobjack Rowing Association (7:57.87) and Hudson River R.A. (8:14.39). For Saturday’s race, Whitemarsh changed its seat order, switching Chisholm and McCormick.

The Whitemarsh eight was made up entirely of Mount students, with rising sophomore Sarah Jordan serving as coxswain for (stroke to bow) Rosie Leonard (12), Lizzy Kiernan (12), Meg Welsh (11), Molly Thompson (12), Colleen Delaney (10), Betsy Thompson (11), Amanda Stillwell (10), and Maura Dougherty (10).

They came in second in their heat on Friday afternoon; Kieffer’s U.S. eight was a whopping 21 seconds ahead in first at 6:54.55. This was by far the faster of the two heats, and late on Saturday afternoon Kieffer and her compatriots enjoyed a comfortable win in the finals, topping runner-up South Jersey R.C., 7:03.35 to 7:12.69. The “A” boat from Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers RA was third (7:24.00) and Whitemarsh was fourth (7:29.34), followed by Three Rivers “B” (7:50.47) and Hudson River (7:56.18).

Stewart’s Selection Camp Bunch didn’t race on Friday, but on Saturday the MSJ coxswain directed a four in the challenging open category, which included adult rowers in their prime. A pair of local crews from the Vesper Boat Club emerged at the head of this class. Their “A” and “B” boats were the two heat winners, while Stewart’s U.S. junior boat was second in the faster of these two qualifying races, and a U.S. “B” boat was third in the slower section.

In the finals held late on that same afternoon, Vesper took the top two spots in 7:12.91 and 7:18.09, with Stewart’s boat landing third in 7:26.63, one place ahead of the other U.S. entry (7:33.31).

The Mount senior was in an eight on Sunday, competing in the intermediate class. Her crew and another U.S. boat were each heat winners in the morning, with Stewart’s bunch posting the fastest time by 13 seconds.

In contrast to the spring season races on the Schuylkill, for which crowds line the riverbank for hundreds of meters, there were few spectators along the lower reaches of the course for the IDR. With the relative absence of cheering from the shore, the coxswains’ calls and even the clacking of the oars in the oarlocks came through clearly.

In her heat race, Stewart could be heard exhorting her crew to repulse a challenge from a rival boat: “You’re the U.S. Team; they shouldn’t even think that they can beat you!”

Her crew was also victorious in the final on Sunday afternoon, with a time of 6:47.92 to the U.S. “B” boat’s 6:56.66. Boston-based CRI placed boats third (7:00.63) and fifth (7:11.52), and fourth place went to Alexandria (VA) Community Rowing (7:07.88).