November 29, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount crew cleans up in fall regattas
by TOM UTESCHER

The victorious Mount St. Joseph varsity eight at the conclusion of the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta on November 11. Mount coach Mike McKenna is in the background, at right, and coxswain Devon Stewart is holding the Theresa Braxton Trophy. The rowers are (L-R) Katy Gregor, Mer Weber, Meg Kehan, Vicky Babson, Mary Maginnis, Lawren Kieffer, Laura Pospisil, and Mary Duff.  (Photo by Kevin Kelly)

At its Conshohocken boathouse last Saturday, the Mount St. Joseph Academy crew celebrated a successful fall 2007 campaign at its annual Class Day festivities. One of the highlights was the christening of an eight-oared shell named for Philadelphia rowing great Lawrence J. Kieffer, grandfather of current Mount senior and varsity eight rower Lawren Kieffer.

Weathering numerous line-up changes, the Magic’s varsity eight won almost every event it entered, finishing up with a victory in the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta on the Kelly Drive course on November 11.

Along with Kieffer, the returning members of the V-8 from 2006-2006 were seniors Meg Kehan, Hilary O’Shea, Megan Schluckebier, and Mer Weber, and junior Mary Maginnis. Both Kehan and Maginnis had participated in U.S. Rowing’s national junior developmental camps over the summer. Senior Devon Stewart, currently the number one coxswain in the U.S. Junior National Team program, moved into the varsity eight from the MSJ lightweight eight, which she had piloted to national championships in 2006 and 2007.

After racing in September, O’Shea took time off to recover from a back injury, and was replaced in the bow seat by sophomore Mary Duff, a member of the Mount’s Stotesbury champion freshman eight last spring. At the other end of the boat, Schluckebier was hurt later on, and handed off her stroke seat to tenth-grader Katie Gregor for the last two races. The final line-up for the fall season consisted of (stroke to bow) Gregor, Weber, Kehan, sophomore Vicky Babson, Maginnis, Kieffer, sophomore Laura Pospisil, and Duff.

Most fall events are very different from the 1500-meter, side-by-side races that take place during the regular high school season in the spring. The fall contests are longer, up to three miles, and most are “head” races, where the boats are released one-by-one at set intervals and then ranked according to time.

On September 30, in the Kings Head Regatta on the Schuylkill in Upper Merion, the varsity eight took a backseat to the Mount’s own junior varsity eight. The JV’s placed first in 17 minutes, 24 seconds, the varsity was next in 17:49, and the lightweights completed a one-two-three finish for the Magic, coming in third in 18:03.

Some members of the JV boat wound up in the varsity vessel later in the season, and at the close of the fall campaign, the junior varsity manifest listed juniors Emma Brown (two), Johanna Duff (stroke), Blaire Kelly (five), Meaghan Scher (bow), Molly Southwell (seven) and Nicole Weinrich (cox) along with sophomores Colleen Delaney (three), Lauren Gresko (four), and Chierika Ukogu (six).

Staffing the lightweight eight were seniors Alicia Elliott (cox), Lizzy Kiernan (two), Katie Leonard (stroke), Jenna O’Neill (five), juniors Caroline Ayes (four), Erika McCormick (six) and Nicole Rossetti (bow), and sophomores Sam Brecht (seven) and Emily Williams (three).

On a 4000-meter course at the Philadelphia Navy Day Regatta on October 13, the varsity eight won in 15:44 and the JV boat was second in 15:56. The next weekend it was off to Boston for the three-mile-long Head of the Charles event. The MSJ varsity came in 12th overall, behind just one other high school team and a number of club crews who pulled their rowers from many different schools. Mount varsity coach Mike McKenna was pleased to see the lightweight eight come in 22nd among a large field of heavyweight crews.

On November 10 the V-8 won the Philadelphia Frostbite Regatta, covering the 2000-meter course in seven minutes and three seconds. The following day, the Magic finally got to compete in a regular 1500-meter scholastic-style race.

The varsity won in 5:09 and the junior varsity boat was runner-up in 5:13, ahead of a well-known club rival from New Jersey, Mercer Rowing Club (5:18.03). All three of these high school-age crews covered the course more quickly than any of the women’s college varsity eights that raced in the Braxton (the University of Rochester had the fastest time, at 5:19).

During the following week, a number of Mount seniors signed college scholarship agreements. From the varsity eight, Schluckebier is headed to Drexel, while Elliott, the JV cox, is bound for Notre Dame. Two of the lightweight eight rowers, Kiernan and O’Neill, signed with Fordham University.