Oct. 30, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's men's rowing team made solid progress in its final head races of the 2008 fall rowing season. Amidst dreary conditions of rain and gusting wind, the entire team took part in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on October 25.

First up for the Hawks was the Freshman 8 racing against a strong and deep field of 30 freshmen/novice crews. Earlier this fall the first year Hawks managed an impressive victory at the Navy Day Regatta, but they couldn't match that performance despite putting together a strong row. The freshmen did manage a fourth-place finish behind Navy and two shells from Princeton and ahead of spring rivals Temple, Drexel, Georgetown, Army, LaSalle and Bucknell. The SJU shell consisted of Stroke- Tim Foley, 7- Sean Stewart, 6- Craig Finnerty 5- Tom Kresz, 4- Matt Benedetto, 3- Tyler Huck, 2- Ryan McElwee, 1- Josh Lichman, Cox- Hanna Shaw.

The Hawks boated two entries into the Club 8 event, with a prototype JV8 and a third Varsity 8. The JV8 consisted of Stroke- Chris Garafalo, 7- Mike Lavin, 6- Max Schipper, 5- Rich Appel, 4- Brendan Blessington, 3- Matt Carrol, 2- Steve Olenik, 1- Steve Dutcher, and Cx- Stacey Gorin. Racing against several collegiate Varsity Eights the JV8 took 13th overall with the Third Varsity 8 taking 21st (out of 30 entries). The 3V8 consisted of Str- Brett Cavanaugh, 7- Mark Fanelli, 6- Luke Dentino, 5- Rich Defino, 4- John Hummel, 3- John Olenyk, 2- Billy Huzar, 1- Dave Lemon, and Cox- Paul Leggieri.

In the Championship Eight, SJU entered two even speed boats - a Varsity Eight and Varsity Lightweight Eight. After struggling in its two prior races, a reworked Varsity 8 line-up that featured Stroke- Ryan Huck, 7- Austin Moench, 6- Dan Gallagher, 5- Glenn Griffin, 4- Chase Powell, 3- Tim Strybuck, 2- Jack Drewniak, 1- Sean King, and Cox- Ryan Pawling made solid progress and managed to nip the Varsity Lightweight Eight by one second, finishing in ninth place.

Despite the ninth-place finish head coach Drew Hill was pleased by the boat's performance. "We struggled a little bit early this fall and today's conditions didn't make for pretty racing. Nevertheless our guys sustained a better rhythm into rough water and moved well at 30 strokes per minute. We also closed the distance on local rivals Temple, Drexel, and Delaware - that positions us well for the spring sprint races."

After their 10th-place finish in the Heavyweight event at the Head of the Schuylkill, the Varsity Lightweight Eight of Stroke- Mike Gibel, 7- Kevin Burrows, 6- Adam Iaccio, 5- Justin Gentile, 4- Brandon Hanna, 3- Michael Wingrove, 2- Jordan Marwin, 1- Conor Malone, Cox- Sarah Jost packed up and traveled to Princeton, NJ for the Princeton Chase head race on Sunday. The Hawks lined up against a very strong field of lightweight boats including Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Navy. Although SJU was the only crew that raced on Saturday, the Hawks managed a solid row and finished 21st out of 30 entries, and only two seconds behind local rival Penn.

SJU returns to racing action on Saturday, November 8th for the Frostbite Regatta on the Schuylkill River. This will be the team's first 2,000 meter sprint race of the season and all indications suggest some tight racing for victories between SJU and local rivals Temple, Drexel, La Salle and Delaware.