Saline Rowers Medal at 2013 Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championships in Ohio

Nashport, Ohio —May 11 and 12, 2013 —

Capitalizing on successes the past two weeks in Wyandotte where Saline Rowers brought home 8 first place medals and a host of second and third place finishes, Saline traveled on Friday to Nashport, Ohio, 60 miles east of Columbus, for the 2013 Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championship Regatta (MSRC).

Held at Dillon Lake in Dillon State Park, the MRSC is one of several scholastic championship regattas held across the country to crown regional champions and qualify teams for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Championship regatta.  The MSRC is restricted to high school rowing programs from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the western half of Pennsylvania and over 30 teams traveled to Lake Dillon to compete. 

Pitted against much larger teams, Saline held its own in the heat races on Saturday morning, qualifying all seven boats entered into the semifinal races held on Saturday afternoon. 

Saline entries qualifying for the semifinals included the Men’s Junior Varsity Double (Andrew Bonczyk and Nolan Dellot), Men’s Lightweight 4 (Sean Hutfles, Travis Krause, Ben Friman, Graham Fox and coxswain Victoria Wellings), Men’s Varsity 4 (Brad Roberts, Alex Mundorf, Mike Pettit, Julian Rodriguez and coxswain Savannah Theisen), Women’s Novice 4 (Allie Fisk, Michaela Wells, Ellie Parker, Jade Hoang and coxswain Brian Peterson), Men’s Novice 4 (David Johnson, Matt Burtell, Zayn Phillips, Ben Read and coxswain Victoria Wellings), Women’s Varsity 8 (Alexis Wolff, Liz Walsh, Gavin Gallagher, Haley Pfeiffer, Sarah Loughman, Jenna Jansa, Rachel Weidmayer, Sarah Buckeridge and coxswain Sarah Carter) and Men’s Varsity 8 (Sean Hutfles, Alex Mundorf, Brad Roberts, Jacob Hargrove, Jeremy Korver, Mike Pettit, Travis Krause, Ryan Wellings and coxswain Savannah Theisen). Also moving directly to the semifinals was the Women’s Junior Varsity Double (Liz Walsh and Alexis Wolff).  

The action accelerated on the brisk Saturday afternoon with the semifinal races when Saline rowers were able to qualify three of their boats (Men’s Lightweight 4, Women’s Junior Varsity Double and Men’s Varsity Quad) into the finals as well as the Women’s Varsity Quad (Gavin Gallagher, Haley Pfeiffer, Sarah Carter and Sarah Buckeridge) who moved directly into the finals to be held on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning started with clear skies, gusty winds and temperatures in the 30’s.  Saline’s first medal of the day was the Women’s Varsity Quad who finished a close second, only 20 seconds behind last year’s second place finisher, Upper Allegheny, and ahead of boats from Rockford and Skyline. Saline’s next race pitted Saline’s Women’s Junior Varsity Double against the other two top two finishers in their heat race (Rockford and Skyline A) where the top three were separated by less than 1 second, along with Skyline B, Carlson and Roosevelt doubles. Saline’s boat finished just off the winning pace, just 14 seconds behind Rockford, earning Saline’s second silver medal of the day. Saline’s other finals entries (Men’s Lightweight 4 and Men’s Varsity Quad) finished just outside the medals in their races.

Saline wraps up its spring season next weekend in Grand Rapids at the Michigan High School Championship Regatta on May 18, 2013.

More information can be found at www.salinecrew.org.