The crew team delivered strong performances this weekend, bringing home two gold medals and three second-place finishes at the Kerr Cup Regatta, headquartered at Drexel University.
Coming off big wins at the Knecht Cup Regatta last weekend, the men’s and women’s varsity four boats continued to show solid efforts, placing second among a collection of prominent clubs and strong Division I teams despite choppy water and wind gusts nearing 30 miles per hour.
In a back-and-forth battle for first, the men’s varsity four boat — sophomore coxswain Maddie Malone, senior Aaron Sigmond-Warner and juniors Christo Maheras, Isaac Odell and Owen Baute — finished second behind Mercyhurst University, beating out Lehigh University, which placed third.
“We almost had them a couple of times,” said junior Isaac Odell, adding that the conditions and their boat’s position likely factored into an overall slower race for the team.
“The waves were so big,” he continued. “They were coming over our bow and hitting riggers.”
After winning its first heat, the women’s varsity four crew — junior coxswain Bella Bursor, sophomore Ally Krohg and seniors Noni Lorentzen, Ellie Walsh and Ashleigh Anzevino — was bested by host team Drexel University in the final.
Both novice men’s and women’s teams won commanding races. The women’s novice four boat, made up of freshmen Claire McElwain, Bridget Duffy, June Morishige, Olivia Frank and coxed by freshman Reese Michaels, dominated their race by a nearly 32-second victory that beat out second-place finisher Thomas Jefferson University.
“We were close in the first 1000, and so we were really able to save our energy and put in that maximum effort in that second half of the race,” McElwain said.
“We had a bunch of our families that were there, and that was about where they were set up,” she continued, explaining that the extra cheering provided the boost they needed to sprint the second half.
The novice men’s race finished in a nail-biter with Lafayette’s team edging out the University of Michigan by just 0.68 seconds.
Freshman coxswain Julian Rodriguez credited the team’s victory to their dedication to showing up for 5:30 a.m. practices every day of the week.
“Putting in the work, not only on the water, but in the gym as well,” Rodriguez said. “Getting our reps in, I think last week was definitely reflective of our hard work.”
Rodriguez was joined by freshman Andrew Drake, Patrick Mayer, Ben Tropeano and Connor Harris in the winning boat.
The Leopards’ junior varsity women’s four team and men’s master 2X team also placed third and second, respectively.
Junior Peyton Schreiber, the president of the crew team and a member of the women’s junior varsity four boat, described the regatta as just a “stepping stone” for bigger competitions to come later in their season.
The crew team competes again at the Novak Memorial Metropolitan Championship in New Rochelle, New York, on Saturday.
“Our mindset is always just to have the best outcome possible,” Schreiber said. “That’s the way we train.”
