M. and w. crew have strong showing at regional finals

By: Alex Ip

Posted: 5/1/08

The men's and women's crew teams perpetuated their dominance in the water with a final tune-up before their Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships this weekend.

Last Saturday, both squads participated in the Division III Regional Championships. The men took home the gold after overall team scoring was calculated, and the women had several big finishes as well.

The venue of Gifford Pinchot State Park in Pennsylvania presented a course length of 2000 meters, and the day was highlighted with the necessity for the unconventional floating starts.

This method of beginning a race is used in the absence of fixed starting platforms or stake boats. Crews are brought up to the line and aligned for the race by referees. This usually adds a challenge, but it did not seem to bother anyone this outing.

"The floating start actually went very well and there was little adjusting to do since the conditions were so nice, and keeping points during the race was not a problem either," sophomore Joshua Crist said.

The Blue Jay men started off the day with the varsity eight which included seniors Chris Vaglia and Josiah Drewien, junior Taylor Reese, sophomores Joshua Crist and Pete Ranieri, and freshmen Andrew Faulkner, Will Cooper and William Bagdorf who helped row a time of 6:01.40 to capture a first place finish.

The guys were initially behind second-place finisher Franklin & Marshall. But Hopkins turned up the throttle in the middle of the heat and held it until the end to pull ahead into open water.

"During the body of the piece we steadily gained seats ahead of [Franklin & Marshall]. At the 1200m mark we brought the stroke rate up a few beats," Crist said.

The next race carried the debut of the Hopkins women's varsity eight, in a noble attempt to try and qualify for nationals. The newly assembled team featured senior Clare Blubaugh, juniors Rebecca Williamson, Vanessa Damm, Courtney Cunningham and Amelia Whitman, sophomore Rosi Martin and freshmen Pia Heilmann and Linda Zhou.

"The best women's eights came from all over and gave us pretty tough competition," co-captain Williamson said. "After a rough start to the season with lots of bad weather injuries and lineup changes, we were extremely proud of our results."

Despite all this, the girls scraped up a second-place finish out of six. Notable was also novice rower Zhou who stepped in to fill the gap of the eighth varsity member who was victim to one of those injuries.

As the meet progressed, teams were compensated with an increasing tailwind, though it did not greatly alter either team's game plan.

"You just learn to adapt the rowing technique depending on conditions, and trust your coxswain's calls," Williamson said.

The two crews of Hopkins in the men's novice four rode the wind to times of 6:45.0 and 6:56.0 to chart at second and third place, respectively.

The novice eight crew also flashed their speed and notched a victory in their heat, coming in a full six seconds earlier than the next fastest team. The crew consisted of sophomore Adam Ammar, freshmen Daniel and William Bagdorf, George Reynolds, Christian Honore, Marcus Webb, Steve Cardinali and Max Thorsbakken.

The A-squad in the men's varsity four which consisted of Vaglia, Drewien, Faulkner and Cooper also had an impressive showing, crossing the finish line second with a time of 6:46.6. The Hopkins B-troupe followed behind in fifth, finishing 41.7 seconds later.

The Lady Jays sat out the varsity four, but capped off the meet in style with the varsity eight petite finals, taking silver in the event with a time of 7:10.1.

Both the men's and women's teams now look to carry their momentum into their penultimate regatta of the year, this Sunday at Lorton, Va.