With this year's shortened crew season, last Sunday's third Manny Flick race was the last chance area schools had to fine-tune their boats before the Philadelphia City Championships on May 1 and 2.

In the girls' novice racing that led off the day's program, Germantown Friends School boats took first in their flight in the novice double (Ella Keim, Ana Vucetic) and the novice quad (Rebecca Rasmussen, Natalie Lau, Madeline Ohta, Cara Appleberry). In another flight of the novice quad, Penn Charter (Merrill Gadsden, Charlotte Baker, Lindsay Gadsden, Ella Bretschneider) placed third in a field of five.

In the eights, the Mount's novice "B" boat won its heat (Ava Vavra (cox), Julia Fede (stroke), Allegra Rawson, Lexi Kerekes, Sine Thompson, Anna Fedders, Julia Burns, Pauline Rawson, Grace Fullmer), and in another flight MSJ "A" (Sarah Mark (cox), Michaela Kowalski (stroke), Emily Feilke, Anna Simola, Caroline Johnson, Maddie Norton, Sabrina Borzi, Ella Vangen, Norah McGlynn) was a close second to Unionville High School.

The freshman eight for the Magic (Angelina Baker (cox), Anna Ledwith (stroke), Meghan Krumenacker, Clara Pagano, Maya Manzo-McCottry, Kari Prosperi, Ellie Fazio, Grace Kyle, Molly Maher) won its flight and posted the best time overall for the two sections in this event.

The girls' JV races were up next, and Springside Chestnut Hill's quad continued to perform well. The crew of Gabriela Leon-Palfrey, Samantha Simon, Ashley Keough and Kaia McTigue won their race and also eclipsed the winning time in the other flight.

There was another Mount St. Joe victory in the JV eight, as the vessel containing Annmarie Wallis (cox), Grace McDonough (stroke), Caitlin O'Reilly, Francesca Fede, Leah Manzo-McCottry, Alexa Kennedy, Kate Kelly, Kathryn Sponseller, and Grace Hartzell crossed the line eight seconds ahead of runner-up Gwynedd Mercy. In its flight of the JV four, the Mount (Chloe Van de Meulebroecke (cox), Sarah Burns (stroke), Nina Rowello, Brianna Montgomery, Aoife Meacle) placed second.

This was immediately followed by a GFS win in the lone flight of the lightweight double. Maria Ramos and Norah Lee were the victorious Tigers, and a second Germantown Friends entry featuring Taylor Peterson and Sarah Levy finished third.

Mount St. Joseph's lightweight four (Giovanna Consiglio (cox), Evelyn McGreevey (stroke), Christina Kelly, Maeve Carmody, Sonia Marhefka) was the runner-up in its flight, five seconds behind Merion Mercy.

Switching the results of the previous Flick, the second eight for the Magic (Emilie Scibelli (cox), Izzy McCafferty (stroke), Olivia Guza, Claire Hanycz, Ruby French, Cassie Koestler, Sarah Gorovitz, Kaylee Dougherty, Luca Bixby) took first place over Moorestown (NJ) High School, winning by about a second.

It was on to varsity, and a GFS victory in one of three flights of the girls' double. Tigers Amelia Sanchirico and Sophia Ortega clocked the second-fastest time out of all three races. In the quad, Springside (Ella Webb, Iris Alex, Ellie McLelland, Kiley McTamney) won its flight by seven seconds over Shipley School, but they'll have to pick up some speed for the City Championships this weekend, since four boats in the other flight of the V-quad had faster times.

A limited COVID quarantine at Mount St. Joe's temporarily sidelined two regular rowers in the varsity eight (and affected some other boats, as well), but the MSJ flagship still eked out a half-second win over Moorestown in a rare single flight in that event. The adjusted line-up featured Ella Valencia (cox), Hannah Lemanowicz (stroke), Julia Geib, Margaret Horgan, Caroline Kyle, Sarah Powell, Alexa Konowal, Kelly Cleary, and Sydney McKernan.

After a break in the schedule, boys' racing got going last Sunday afternoon. Penn Charter earned a second-place finish in the freshman quad (Elias Moulton, James Foley, Jack Bowen, Mackenzie Haines), and the Quakers won the opening flight of the novice quad (Scott Sweeney, James Glomb, Matthew Clarke, Harrison Signorello).

In the next two sections of the Nov-quad, runner-up finishes were turned in by SCH (Elias Eckert, Shaun Gupte, Evan Champagne, Matthew Leon-Palfrey) and by Germantown Academy (Charlie Ota, Max Goldman, Landan DeHaven, Patrick Major).

When JV action began, GFS enjoyed second-place showings in the single (Aidan Cusack) and double (Zachary Branas, Drew Cohen). Another runner-up was the SCH JV quad (Jack Stephenson, Andrew Topping, Jude Halfpenny, Samuel Halfpenny), which was less than half-a-second behind the winner from Seton Hall Prep.

The Blue Devils did get first in the lightweight quad thanks to Theodore Tasman, Charles Miles, Luca Belmonte, and Sam Meyer. The lightweight double from GFS, powered by Rich Soong and Otis Harrison, placed second in its race.

The PC boys finished Flick 3 with a third-place outcome in the varsity quad (Taylor Whitehead, Cornelius Lynch, James Tanner, Isaiah Woods-Kolsky). They were close behind runner-up Shipley, but Malvern Prep simply walked away with this flight, and Conestoga High School was even faster in the other heat.