April 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

CHA, Mount & Springside finish Flick series
by TOM UTESCHER

For various reasons, not all rowers from the Chestnut Hill Academy, Mount St. Joseph, and Springside School crews were at the top of their game last Sunday in the fifth (and final) Manny Flick race, and they’ll be looking to bring it up a couple of notches as the medal racing season gets underway.

Once again, Flick organizers went with a split schedule, with the girls’ races staged in the morning and early afternoon, and the boys’ contests wrapping up the proceedings.

In the first contest of the day, Springsider Victoria Iannarone placed third in the novice single, taking half-a-minute off of her time from the previous Sunday.

The Lions’ varsity quad didn’t have one of its better outings, coming in fourth and 18 seconds off the lead, but Springside’s “A” JV quad ran away with its race and put up the best time out of two heats. This crew consisted of Jenn Arcidiacono (stroke), Katherine Roberts, Katie Fitzkee, and Kelsey Trueblood, while JV “B”, which placed third, contained Laura Chisholm (stroke), Meg Speight, Allie Colina, and Larissa Sfedu.

The Lions also had a pair of entries in the freshman quad class, where Springside “A” (Taylor Apostolico [stroke], Becca Chasar, Meghan Harrison, and Rose Donahue) finished third, and the “B” boat (Verity Walsh [stroke], Rebecca Lefco, Tilden Bissell, Sofia Soto-Reyes) wound up one spot behind.

Racing at the Mercer Lake Sprints near Princeton on Saturday, Mount St. Joe got convincing wins from its JV eight, second eight and lightweight eight, while the varsity eight finished second to Mercer’s own club crew in the finals. The final round races were slated for a 2000-meter course instead of the usual 1500 found in scholastic competition, and since all the rowers had raced in a preliminary heat, as well, they were not fresh for Manny Flick number five the following day.

Mainland, a New Jersey high school, chose not to attend Mercer on Saturday, and at Sunday’s final Flick they held off a late charge by the Mount V-8 and by Bishop Eustace to win the final heat in the event. The Magic were nine-tenths of a second behind Mainland, and Eustace was another six-tenths back.

The Mount’s “B” boat, actually the JV eight, came in fourth in the same heat, and the “C” boat (the true “second” eight) won an earlier varsity heat and put up the sixth-fastest time overall out of three sections. Earlier, the Magic’s lightweight eight looked like it was going to fight off an intense sprint by Holy Spirit, but the Mount caught a crab close to the finish line and was the runner-up by 3.19 seconds.

The first-year eights were confined to head races, where the MSJ freshmen eight turned in the second-best time out of 18 entries, and in another 18-boat field, the novices ranked fourth.

In fours action for the Magic, the JV “A” boat was second among 23 competitors in head racing, while in a regular heat the lightweight four “A” crew placed second to Jersey’s Egg Harbor High School. Germantown Academy won the third heat of the varsity four event with a crew of Sara Honickman (cox), Abby Korth (stroke), Taylor Black, Molly Murray, and Claire Dougherty.

With half of its members away at a national robotics convention, Chestnut Hill Academy’s successful JV quad did not race at all on Sunday afternoon, and the Blue Devils’ varsity quad, which had not fared as well in earlier Flicks, was broken up to staff smaller boats.

In disbanding the varsity quad, however, CHA came up with a winner. The former stroke and bow rower from that boat, Pete Miller and Sam Franklin, raced a varsity double and dusted the field, beating their closest rivals by almost 20 seconds.