Hornets Crew Third at Hebda Cup Regatta

The Saline Hornets finished third overall at Saturday's in Wyandotte.

The men’s team also finished second in the men’s division, falling only behind St Mary’s Orchard Lake, which has won the men’s championship for the last five years.

Saline had great success all day, winning three events and finishing second in three others.

The first place finishes came in the WN4+, the MN4+ and the MJR8+. The second place finishes came in the MLT8+, the MV4+ and the MLT4+. Saline’s success is built heavily around the leadership of senior captains Irene Kitromelides, Zach Dowling and Tim Carter.

Carter said the entire team gave great effort all day.

“For me, this is the best Hebda Cup that I have been apart of since I joined the team,” he said. “For us to have three first place finishes and three second place finishes is a big deal.

Dowling echoed the words of his fellow captain, but furthered the point of the water cooperating.

“The water was nice because of the weather helping us out,” he said. “Due to this, the regatta ran very smoothly. … I am happy with the way that today went, and I can see the team having a better effort next week.”

That event has the team returning to Wyandotte next Saturday for the . Wyandotte hosts that event, which kicks off at 7:30 a.m. at the .

Katie Larder, Saline’s co-head coach, said the Hebda Cup was a place to build momentum for the team, which hasn’t been able to practice much because of the weather.

“Today, I wanted our team to do well, but it was a rough week due to the way the weather was,” she said. “This is a smaller regatta and we brought 34 kids, so this gave us a chance to solidify our lineups.”

All three captains agreed that the day was a success, but Kitromelides gave special attention to her coaches.

“I thought the coaches did great today,” she said. “It was an awesome day to be here and the coaches put together the boats really well.”