Conestoga High School Crew Successful Outing at City Championships

The 2017 Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association racing season culminated this past weekend with the City Championships on the Schuylkill River. Conestoga Crew had an impressive showing with 16 boats entered in the regatta; the largest number of entries by a single team in Pennsylvania. Of the 75 schools competing, no other school had more entries except for Ridgewood Crew that also had 16 boats.

Twelve Conestoga Crew boats raced on day one of the two-day City Championships and all twelve boats advanced to Sunday.

Sunday started with Warren Zhao and Amir Zisling in the boys Junior Varsity 2x. The JV 2x was the only Stoga boat to have to compete in a semi-final. In an extremely fast heat, the boys finished in fourth, 1.47 seconds behind third place Boys’ Latin and did not advance to the finals.

Edward Culbert raced in the boys Novice 1x and took an admirable fourth in a tough Freshman/Novice race.

In the following four Novice races, all four ‘Stoga boats took home medals. Freshman Joey Murray and Dawson Keyes took home silver in the Novice 2x. Katherine Moir, Annie Studber, Lexi Bashe and Mira Harris finished second in the Girls Novice 4x. Boys Novice 4x, Teddy Gieske, Michael Wilson, Michael Malarkey and Luca Barton finished third. Winning the first gold medal of the day, the Girls Freshman 4x with Lily Bielinski, Annie Dudrear, Maggie Gosnear and Isobel Fellows finished 4.82 seconds ahead of Agnes Irwin.

In the final Freshman race of the day, the Boys 4x fought a close race. Zachary Miles, Konstantin Markovic, Chase Ledwith and Marcos Dyer finished fifth, less than 8 seconds behind first place Haddon Township.

Capturing the second gold of the day, Abigail Lewis, Blair Kennedy, Elena Lindquist and Katherine Stanton, in the undefeated Girls Junior Varsity 4x, finished 0.58 seconds ahead of Agnes Irwin.

The boys Junior Varsity 4x, with Brenton Molsbergen, Cole Fogarty, Michael Medica and Evan Cain finished third, taking home a bronze.

The two lightweight doubles both finished fourth in their respective races. In the girl’s event, Anna Green and Natalia Bertolotti finished 2.17 seconds behind third place Ridgewood. In the boy’s boat, Liam Bobber and Frank Wang finished 8.06 seconds behind first place Malvern Prep in a competitive race.

Leo Draper, Sam Nalbone, Kale Wiley and Drew Tada came in first place in the Boys Lightweight 4x with a winning time of 4:55.50 beating Germantown Friends and Roman Catholic.

Holly Culbert and Leigh Burgess finished in fourth in a heart-pounding Girls Varsity 2x race, 0.20 seconds behind Baldwin and 6.76 seconds off first place. The Boys Varsity 2x followed immediately after and was equally as exciting. Shane Connell and Matt Balch finished in third place taking home a bronze medal.

In the last two races of the day, Conestoga’s Varsity quads both medaled. Victoria Budike, Laura Alcorn, Kate Hudson and Kate Concannon took home gold with a winning time of 5:19.02, beating Ridgewood by 2.11 seconds. In the fastest race of the day, Griffin Hamilton, Max Amsterdam, Connor Sullivan and Zach Simpson took second place with a time of 4:38.64. Their boat finished 2.84 seconds behind Malvern Prep and 0.25 seconds ahead of Haddon Township.

Of the 64 schools that took home medals, Conestoga Crew Club finished in first place amongst all the sculling teams at the City Championships and second place overall in the Team Points count.