Absegami, Oakcrest Crew Teams Recognized by Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District

School may be out for the summer, but that did not stop the accolades from flowing at Monday night's Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District meeting.

The recognition went to the crew teams at both Absegami and Oakcrest high schools, though Absegami High School took top billing at the meeting due to it having a stellar season.

Absegami Principal Jeri Lynn Gatto noted that a request came from the coaches about coming before the Board of Education.

"Last year, we had a request from one of the crew parents about how we could be recognized," Gatto said.

Other groups had come before the board on other occasions.

The girls’ team went all the way to the national championships where it took a silver medal, the first in the school's history, coach Brad Young said.

The girls, however, are not unfamiliar to a winning season.

"They won states last year. They won county," Young said, noting how proud he was of the team, especially since "they repeated (their winning streak) this year."

The Lady Braves tied with Holy Spirit for the team points trophy during the Atlantic County High School Rowing Championships which were held on Lake Lenape in Mays Landing May 14. Both teams had 124 points.

The following weekend, the nine area girls’ crew teams, along with the nine boys’ teams, competed in the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, held on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

Absegami was among 176 high schools, 868 boats and 5,000 or so athletes who participated.

The Braves' varsity eight, which consisted of stroke Kelsea Shiner, Kelly Bird, Ashley Mauroff, Colleen Rennie, Brianna Dendler, Bethany Warlich, Amanda Kleuser, bow Bridget Pfeifer and coxswain Kaitlyn Reyes, took silver at that event.

Eleven girls on the team will not be returning next school year, Young noted.

The 11 were seniors this past school year and will be moving on to college. The coaching staff said that the girls each received full or partial scholarships due to their participation in crew.

Crew has been at both schools for nine years. The schools have been competing for the past eight years, Oakcrest coach Brad Cress said.

He was at Absegami when the program began. He credited former Superintendent of Schools Adam Pfeiffer for helping to set the program into motion.

The school district provided $20,000 as seed money.

The boys did not go as far as the girls did this past season; they did, however, had a good season.

The Absegami boys’ varsity eight finished in third place, its best finish at the Atlantic County High School Rowing Championships.