This past weekend, the crew team attended the 55th Annual Kerr Cup Invitational Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. While Lafayette faced tough competition and conditions this past weekend, the team managed to secure first and second-place finishes.

The team has dominated on the water so far this spring, coming off two weekends of successful regattas including the Murphy Cup where four boats earned gold medals and the Knecht Cup last week, where five boats advanced to the Grand Finals.

The team faced extreme weather conditions on Saturday, which junior Abby Hammel said was a huge issue in the race.

“In my final there were whitecaps, and it really made the racing difficult,” Hammel wrote in an email. “It definitely played a role in how we did because we aren’t used to [these] conditions on our river, whereas some of the boats we raced practice on the Schuylkill.”

Hammel was a member of the women’s varsity four, which placed second out of six teams in the Grand Final on Saturday, finishing behind Drexel with a time of 08:27.1. Joining Hammel in the varsity four was classmate Lauren Salbinski along with seniors Haley Simpson, Elizabeth Good and Erika Nally.

“I think the team did the best we could given the terrible conditions,” Hammel said. “Like I said before, we really never row in the kind of waves we saw this weekend, which made it super hard to adjust.”

The men’s varsity four finished in third (07:49.7) of six teams behind La Salle and Loyola and then went on to win the petite final in a time of 07:28.1. The men’s varsity four included sophomore Eliot Rusk, junior Henry Grote and seniors Ethan Ames, Tino Dubischar and Charlie Scorsone.

Assistant Coach Derek Richmond explained that since the Kerr Cup did not have specific events for novice crews, the men’s and women’s novice fours both had to race up a division to compete in the JV category.

On the men’s side, the Lafayette novice four finished fourth, actually placing ahead of the Lafayette JV crew. The novice four included freshmen Teddy Manning, Aaron Sigmond-Warner, Nate Schulz and sophomores Ben Arky and Kendall Lamm.

“It was tough competition all around, and conditions were rough, but we came away with some good results and some recognition of where we need to improve,” Richmond said.

Next up for the team will be the Gifford Pinchot Sprint Regatta in Lewisberry, Pa. next Saturday.