Congratulations to our hard-working, select crews who proved themselves to be among the best in the nation with outstanding performances and top 5th place finishes in races against seasoned, competitive crews from around the country at the SRAA National Championship Regatta held at Mercer Lake near Princeton, New Jersey, May 22-23, 2009. All three of our competing crews at Scholastic Nationals rowed hard and made it into their finals with both the Men’s Junior 8 and Women’s Senior 4 crews finishing 5th best overall in the country. The Men’s Senior 4 boat finished 5th in their Petite Final and placed 11th overall among the nation’s top teams.

The Men’s Junior 8+ boat turned in an exceptional performance, finishing 5th in their Final with rowers Zach Lowe, Nathan Miller, Nick Cameron, Will Trabue, Daniel Adams, Grant Schick, Nick Bergen, Edward Byrd and coxswain Matt Velten. The crew finished the 2000m course in 5:09:858 with a bold and surprising performance best described as “gritty” by Boys’ Varsity Head Coach Chris Swartz. Coach praised the team for rowing over their heads in the semi to gain the finals and then hold off a good crew from Bonner while racing close to some other good crews to a 5th place finish. Kudos to the boys’ crew and coaches for an outstanding performance at Nationals!

The Women’s Senior 4+ crew also raced extremely well to make it all the way into the grand finals where they captured a 5th place finish in 6:27:046 with rowers Caroline Galluzzi, Cori Meinert, Sarah Elliott, Alex Smart and coxswain Allie Williams. Girls’ Varsity Head Coach Andy Wimmer was pleased by the team’s strong finish and stated that he is “very proud” of this crew that has performed well together throughout the season. Rowing to a 5th place finish at Scholastics to place “5th best in the nation” is a great achievement for the program, says Coach Wimmer who summed it up stating, “It’s a great feeling to lineup against teams that share the passion and enthusiasm we have for our sport. To come away 5th from the top 30 boats in the country is a wonderful accomplishment.” Way to go girls!

The Men’s Senior 4+ crew also turned in an extraordinary finish at SRAA Nationals where they placed 5th in the Petite Final to rank 11th overall in the nation. Coach Swartz congratulated the “lightweight” senior crew of Alan Chan, Andy Weiland, Michael Caligiuri, Stephen Barthelmas and coxswain Collin Brown because the team rowed hard and made great strides in getting into the semis. He was hoping they might sneak into the grand finals, but the team ended up being pushed in a close finish to the petite final where they completed the course in 5:47:097 to achieve a 5th place finish and 11th place overall ranking in the country. Coach S. praised the crew for their compelling performance because, “They proved they can race with the bigger boys and have set themselves up nicely for competing against the other Lightweight 4’s out of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.” Congratulations to the boys’ “lightweight” crew who proved they can do the heavy lifting to finish strong with the heavyweights!