Oct. 12, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's rowing team began 2008-09 in winning fashion at the Navy Day Regatta.

Under sunny skies and warm temperatures the Hawks started the day with a second-place finish in the College Lightweight Four event, placing behind Georgetown "A" but ahead of Loyola, Lafayette and Georgetown B. The SJU crew consisted of stroke seat Mike Gibel, three seat Michael Wingrove, two seat Chase Powell, bow seat Conor Malone, and coxswain Ryan Pawling.

The SJU freshmen had a strong start to their college rowing careers with the SJU A boat winning the Men's Frosh/Novice College Eight event . The SJU A boat posted a time of 13:52.6, to best competition from Navy, Temple, Drexel, Penn, Lehigh, and Delaware. The SJU A boat included stroke seat Tim Foley, (7) Tyler Huck, (6) Craig Finnerty, (5) Tom Kresz, (4) Matt Benedetto, (3) Sean Stewart, (2) Brandon Hanna, (1) Justin Gentile, and coxswain Hanna Shaw. In impressive fashion the Hawks' novices posted the fastest time of the day for SJU, besting the Varsity Eight's time of 13:59.4. The SJU Freshman B did not fare as well due to two stoppages during their race, placing 19th out of the 21 entries.

The Hawks entered two Varsity Lightweight 8s, but late line-up switches contributed to poor performances as the Hawks posted times of 14:15.4 and 15:00.0 to place 11th (SJU A) and 13th (SJU B) out of 13. The Hawks' Varsity Lightweight Eight of stroke Jordan Marwin, Kevin Burrows, Mike Gibel, Steve Dutcher, Chase Powell, Michael Wingrove, Tom McElwee, bow Conor Malone, and coxswain Sarah Jost will be looking to find some better base speed as they prepare for the Head of the Charles next weekend.

The Hawks' Varsity 8 of stroke Ryan Huck, Tim Strybuck, Jack Drewniak, Mike Lavin, Dan Gallagher, Glenn Griffin, Max Shipper, Austin Moench and coxswain Paul Legierri could not match the performance of last year's Varsity Eight, who took second place overall one year ago. The Hawks fell to seventh place behind the Naval Academy, Drexel, Rutgers, Temple, Delaware, and Colgate but ahead of Mary Washington, Georgetown, Army, Lehigh, and Lafayette.

In the last race of the day for the Hawks, the Dad Vail Eight, SJU rowed two even boats with several oarsmen racing for the second time. The SJU B boat finished third with a time of 14:40.4 and the SJU A shell took fifth with a time of 14:43.1. Loyola won the race with a time of 14:06.6.

The Hawks return to action next weekend when they send two boats to the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass.