Conestoga Crew Girls Earn Medals at Scholastic Rowing National Championships

Occasional showers and gusty winds greeted the Conestoga Crew Club upon their arrival at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s (SRAA) National Championships on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, NJ last Friday morning for the qualifying round of races.   The Womens Varsity 2X (Molly Dudrear, Brianna Kaufmann), Womens Ltwt Varsity 2X (Angela Sarkisian, Sophie Bodek), Womens JV 2X (Madeline Beirne, Rachael Devlin), and Mens Varsity 2X (Andrey Lanahan, Jared Ingersoll) boats all qualified in their morning races and moved on to the Semi-Finals / Finals in their events. 

The dreary conditions did not dampen any spirits Friday afternoon as five Conestoga Quad boats took to the water  with the Womens Freshman 4X (Emily Hompe, Caroline Gosnear, Carly Robins, and Leah Palomo), Mens Freshman 4X (Jacob Novak, Michael Kling, Ryan Hollinger, Ted  McGovern), Womens JV 4X (Sarah Thomas, Annina Ruggerillo, Amy Connell, Isabel Geddes), Womens Varsity 4X (Anne Graf, Maddy Tessier-Kay, Megan Hudson, Rebecca Simonetti), and Mens Varsity 4X (Sean Pepin, Nathan Leibowitz, Tyler Simpson, Brian Kane) all qualified from their races for the Saturday afternoon Finals.

Conditions on Saturday were little improved as the racing got underway with a couple of Semi-Final races.  The Womens Varsity 2X of Molly Dudrear and Brianna Kaufmann moved into the finals with their 2^nd place finish in their heat (3^rd overall); the Mens Varsity 2X crew of Andrey Lanahan and Jared Ingersoll passed a couple of boats in a furious sprint to capture the final spot and qualify for the afternoon finals.  And so, the afternoon Finals were set with the Conestoga Crew Club certain to be a factor.

Unfortunately, and as experienced often this spring, the weather (wind) just would not cooperate; extremely high winds forced cancellation of all singles and double/pairs racing.   As a result, the Womens JV 2X was awarded 2^nd place and Silver medal, the Womens Varsity 2X was awarded 3^rd place and a Bronze medal.  The Womens and Mens Freshman 4X boats both earned 2^nd place finishes in their races and received Silver medals.  The Womens JV 4X won Gold medals for the victory in their event, and Womens Ltwt 4X (Emer Ryle, Maddy Amsterdam, Katie Groves, Jenny Alcorn) easily won their race and received Gold medals.  The Mens Ltwt 4X crew of Niall Carlsson, Steven Devlin, Max Malarkey, and Nick McNamara just missed a medal with their 4^th place finish, but the Womens Varsity 4X crew (Anne Graf, Maddy Tessier-Kay, Megan Hudson, Rebecca Simonetti) won their event and received Gold medals; the Mens Varsity 4X crew finished 4^th and was left off the medal stand.   

The season concludes at US Rowing’s Youth National Championships in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from June 7 – 9.  Twenty-two rowers (and parents) will be making the trip to race against the best in the country and enjoy some camaraderie.  You can watch live streaming of the races in Tennessee on your computer or Smartphone beginning Friday morning, June 7^th: http://www.youtube.com/user/usrowingorg.  For complete race results from this past weekend and earlier competitions, visit the Conestoga Crew website: www.conestogacrew.org/regattas.