Area rowers finished up the 2025 "regular season" in crew last Sunday, competing in the fifth and final Manny Flick/Horvat race.

For the morning competition there was a head-race format, where the boats leave the starting line one-by-one at set intervals and then are ranked according to their finishing time.

Penn Charter's excellent girls' JV double (Hannah Aldinger, Liliana DeMartinis) whipped an overall field of 21 boats, winning by eight seconds over the runner-up. Both of Germantown Friends School's JV quads won, with the boys (Sam Desai, Luca Farrell, Aiden Dunleavy, Levi Yeomans) topping 16 other crews as they won by six seconds. The Tiger girls (Isabella Ammon, Nola Schaenen, Kate Mardeusz, Silvia Kim) were timed 1.14 seconds ahead of number two Springside Chestnut Hill (Charlotte Trayes, Elizabeth O'Brien, Iris Dobeck, Ariya Goswami) out of 11 boats overall. Finishing third was Germantown Academy (Sophia Song, Alex Brown, Mirabelle Hayes, Nina Sager).

There was a field of 19 crews in the girls' novice eight, and third place went to Mount St. Joseph Academy (Cox: Aislynn Costello, Summer Caulfield, Alana Fabrey, Natalie Peddicord, Lynn Remy, Christian Robinson, Maeve Ruibal, Olivia Jaquinto, Isabella Scott).

After the head races, there was a pause in the program before side-by-side competition began.

Early in the regular lane-racing stage in the afternoon, a Springside Chestnut Hill duo (Marshall Minor, Roman McNichols) placed second in their flight of the boys' freshman/novice double, posting the fourth-fastest time overall.

The GFS girls in the Tigers' freshman quad (Theodora Farrell, Leela Rajagopalan, Ivy Schaenen, Kavya Senthil) made a strong showing for the victory in that category. An SCH quartet (Corina Gutgesell, Jordan Jackson, Siena McNichols, Alice Greenleaf) placed second, but they were not really close to the GFS foursome. In the boys' competition in this category, the Tigers (Ryan Chi, Henry Noel, Nate Gearhart-Robboy, Gus Conley) finished third behind boats from much larger all-boys schools, Haverford and Malvern.

In the last of the freshman races, Mount St. Joseph's eight (Cox: Bridget Murra, Sophia Prosperi, Molly Groark, Ava kristel, Addison McKenna, Katie Canalley, Callie Zapalac, Ainsley Short, Megan Bell, ) looked strong en route to a five-second win over number two Mainland High School.

There was a much closer finish in the second flight of the girls' novice quad, where Penn Charter (Sloane Miller, Addie Marg, Peyton Abbott, Nema Kothari) and GFS (Maia Todman Moore, Sofia O'Sullivan, Alisa Ding, Alda Liu) raced in adjacent lanes and the Quakers eked out a victory by less than a second. However, the top boats in the first flight (Conestoga and Haddon Township) were significantly faster.

One of the Mount's best performances of the day came from the Magic's JV eight (Cox: Alice Baker, Shay Gura, Marianna Rambo, Aubrey Sheehan, Maddie Dudley, Olivia Weissman, Addi Ross, Elyse McGlynn, Ella Kurek). Winning the second flight in 5:07.52, the Mounties finished 13 seconds ahead of second-place Episcopal Academy, and EA's time was actually better that that of the winner of the other flight.

In the second eight class, the Magic (Cox: Sydney Fluke, Molly Chipman, Alexia Levine, Addison Marques, Ramsey Tabor, Anna Rybny, Maddie Kristel, Zoe Nguyen, Ryan Salvitti) won the second flight and put up the third fastest time overall. There was no need to rush, and the Mounties wound up 19 seconds ahead of the runner-up in their section.

The boys' lightweight double from SCH (Jude Hackford, Luke Egen) was in the slower flight in that event, but they did have a dramatic finish, coming in second to Devon Prep by just 0.62 seconds. Alex Young, in Germantown Friends' boys' varsity single, placed second in his flight and had the third-best time in the entire event.

The girls in Penn Charter's varsity double (Zoe Page, Grace Magee) won the fast flight of that event in 5:55.37, and runner-up GFS (Lyla Conley, Lila Donovan) arrived at the line three seconds later and recorded the second fastest time overall. In the boys' races in this category, PC's duo (Ross Lee, Jackson Stoddard) finished third in their contest, with the fifth-best time out of the two flights.

In the significantly faster first flight of the girls' varsity quad, Springside Chestnut Hill (Evelyn Seawright, Nadia Stockman, Emma Schwartz, Caitlin Keough) placed second. The Blue Devils were about 10 seconds behind Agnes Irwin, which has excelled in this event all season. In the boys' varsity quad, the faster flight featured traditional powerhouses Malvern Prep (the winner) and Haverford School, while Germantown Academy (Utsav Mittal, Jack Wescott, Maloy Lafferty, Andrew Wells) came in third.

Mount St. Joseph's varsity eight (Cox: Kayleigh Costello, Kate Marsden, Ava Smith, Olivia Duffy, Addy Smith, Eva Getty, Zoe Truitt, Vanessa Ksiazek, Katie Duffy) won the second flight of the event in 4:55.99. The winner of the first flight, Merion Mercy, was a hair faster at 4:55.32, but Merion got a bit of a push in its race from Virginia's Alexandria City High School (4:57.20), while the Magic were more than 10 seconds ahead of flight two runner-up Ocean City.