The crew team won three gold medals and advanced six of seven boats to finals in the Kerr Cup Regatta last weekend at Drexel University.
“Honestly this team is beyond supportive, and that is something that we focus on because in a sport like this, it is vital to support each other in that way,” junior Ashleigh Anzevino said. “I think that is something that the entire team is really good about.”
The Kerr Cup does not include a novice category, so the men’s novice four of senior Jacob Moldover, freshmen Ryan Delmore, Emery Castimore, Harrison Zoller and freshman coxswain Nicole Bagdasarian raced in the JV category. The boat won, beating the host of the regatta, NCAA Division I program at Drexel University.
“It was a really great day for racing, we had really great conditions and really great water to row on,” Moldover said. “I wasn’t super confident going into it, but we had a really strong start and started up by about a seat. We decided to try to sprint out the finish and ended up winning by 14 seconds.”
Moldover added that he “had mixed feelings about the fourth-place finish.
“I know that we wanted to put in a better performance and really show that we can be winning regattas and I think that this win gives us a lot of confidence going into the back half of the season,” he said.
After winning gold last weekend despite bad weather conditions disrupting the Knecht Cup, the varsity four of senior Ben Arky, juniors Aaron Sigmond-Warner and Isaac Odell, sophomore Christo Maheras and senior coxswain Kendal Lamm took second place behind La Salle University.
The women’s varsity four of juniors Noni Lorentzen and Ellie Walsh, sophomores Elle Lansing and Lili Gerstenschlager and sophomore coxswain Annabelle Witkowski won its race with a time of 7:34:00 against boats from Drexel University, Fairfield University, Temple University, Monmouth University and La Salle University.
“Any time you can pull off victories over varsity programs as a club team, you feel like you’re in a good position and things are going right,” head coach Rick Kelliher said. “These results show that our crews are getting faster and this was a good tune-up for the Dad Vail Regatta in a few weeks, where we’ll face more tough varsity competition across the board.”
In a similar fashion to the men’s group, the women’s novice boat competed in the JV race. Junior Ashleigh Anzevino, sophomore Kelsey Donatelli, freshmen Ally Krohg and Christina Kingan and freshman coxswain Madeleine Malone pulled ahead for the win. The JV four, made up of seniors Rose Broderick and Julia Bavaro, sophomores Peyton Schreiber and Anne Wang and sophomore coxswain Bella Bursor, took third in the same race with only Drexel University between the Leopard boats.
“I would say honestly, it’s a massive reflection on how hard we have been working in practice,” Anzevino said. “Most of the girls in our boat have been rowing for less than a year, so to be placed in a boat with those higher expectations was a little scary. I am just really proud of how hard we have been working”.
The crew team competes next on April 27 when the group will travel to Lewisberry, Pennsylvania for the Gifford Pinchot Sprint Regatta. This is another small race as the team gears up for its biggest competition of the year at the Dad Vail Regatta on May 10.
Disclaimer: Business Manager Jacob Moldover ’24 did not contribute writing or reporting.
