June 3, 2006

PENNSAUKEN, NJ - A fourth place finish in the petite final by the Varsity Lightweight 8 highlighted a solid weekend of competition for Saint Joseph's at the 104th Annual IRA National Championships on the Cooper River. All five SJU crews that competed over the weekend advanced to the finals.

Composed of Devlin Murdock, Joe D'Amato, Marc Mallott, Adam Stoll, Mike Santoro, William West, Steve Ramsey, Kevin Jacobs and Stephanie Gehringer (cox) the Lightweight 8 finished sixth in its qualifying heat with a time of 6:11.91 and then rallied to place fourth in the petite final 6:06.53, easily ahead of Delaware and Rutgers and within striking distance of Georgetown, Dartmouth and Penn.

SJU's four other boats, including the Varsity 4+, Varsity 4-, Freshman 8 and Varsity Pair all reached third level finals.

The Varsity 4- of

Jeff Schaetzle, Dan Fazio, Mike Leahy and Dan Lachant placed fourth in both its opening heat and repechage before going on to win the third final in a time of 6:36.83, topping Ohio State, Syracuse, Minnesota, Boston College and Delaware.

The Freshman 8 comprised of Jon Schneckenburger, Mike Wingrove, Sean Riley, Jack Drewniak, Larry Maher, Sean King, Jordan Marwin, Kevin Connors and Mark DelGuercio (cox) placed second in its third final (6:05.42). The Dad Vail champions advanced by placing second in their repechage and third in their semifinals.

The Varsity 4+ which included Alex DiBiasi, Sean Flynn, Wayne Zimmer, Andrew Friedlander and Charlie Koob (cox) was fourth in its repechage and won its semifinal heat before being slotted in the third final where it finished fourth with a time of 6:57.97.

After finishing fifth in both the heats and repechage, the Varsity Pair of Adrian Gherca and Gavin Adams finished sixth in the third final in 7:36.92.