Oct. 31, 2005

PHILADELPHIA - An impressive performance by the Second Varsity 8 at the Head of the Schulykill kicked off a busy weekend for the Saint Joseph's men's rowing team. The 2nd Varsity 8 placed 3rd out of 33 in the men's Club 8 event, and first among the 22 college teams that participated. SJU then returned to the water on Sunday at the prestigious Princeton Chase Regatta.

"The 2nd Varsity looked very solid on the water today, commented first-year Assistant Coach Victor Marwin. "They had a great race and executed what we have been working on in practice for the last month and half."

Members of the 2nd Varsity included coxswain Charlie Koob, Stk.- Dave Naab, 7- Jeff Schaetzle, 6- Justin Jones, 5- Wayne Zimmer, 4- Andrew Friedlander, 3- Bill Fox, 2- John Romvary, and Bow- Sean O'Hara.

Also racing in this event the SJU 3V placed 11th out of 33 and 8th out of 22 colleges.

Despite rowing without several key members due to injury or boating in a varsity shell, the Hawk Freshman turned in impressive performances finishing 9th and 13th out of a field of 47 boats. The SJU "A" shell consisted of cox- Mark DelGuercio, Stk.- Michael Boone, 7- Michael Fath, 6- Larry Maher, 5- Jack Drewniak, 4- Dan Povlich, 3- Kevin Millazo, 2-James Thornton, and bow- Kevin Connors. The SJU B shell was made of cox- Nora Tramontina, Stk.- Michael Wingrove, 7- Kevin Burrows, 6- Sean FitzPartick,5- Andrew Masterson, 4- Jon Schneckenburger, 3-James O'Donoghue , 2 Brett Cavanaugh, and Bow-Dan McCann.

Freshmen Coach Dan Goettner ('01) was pleased by the results. "I really thought the two boats performed well today. We had a couple of key personnel losses this week due to injury and varsity boatings, but the guys just shook it off and went out and raced well. We rowed the race a little bit low at 28 (strokes per minute), but we had good spacing and a nice rhythm. It shows some good progress for these guys over the course of the fall."

The Varsity Lightweight 8 ran into some traffic problems during their race on the Schuylkill. "We had just passed Bucknell's Heavyweight 8 going into the Columbia Avenue turn. We made the turn on the outside but Bucknell continued straight and there was a clash of oars and shells that cost us several seconds", said Senior Captain Devlin Murdock. The Hawks got it back together and managed to finish in 5th behind crews from Penn and Delaware.

At the Princeton Chase on Sunday the Hawks boated two lightweight shells and finished 22nd and 26th out of a competitive field of 31. The SJU A boat featured seniors Devlin Murdock and Joe D'Amato, juniors Lauren Moran, William West, and Blake Schiller, sophomores Mark Mallot, Kevin Jacobs, and Adam Stoll, and freshman rower Jordan Marwin. The SJU B shell featured seniors Mike Santoro and Jesse Burns, junior coxswain Stephanie Gehringer, sophomores John Reedy and Doug Cleveland, and 4 freshmen rowers, Michael Boone, Michael Wingrove, Kevin Burrows, and Kevin Millazo.

The Varsity Heavyweight 8 had a mediocre performance on Saturday finishing in 7th place, 5th amongst college teams. After beating Temple and Marist at the Head of the Charles last weekend the Hawks slipped a few places back, losing to Marist by 8 seconds and Temple by 7 seconds. On Sunday at the Princeton Chase the Hawk Heavyweight shells took 19th and 27th out of a field of 38.

"We are rowing well but we are just not able to match the fitness of our competitors right now", commented Head Coach Drew Hill. "We keep giving up 3 - 4 strokes per minute to our competition and this effects our place in the standings. In the long run I think we are doing the right things on the water and building a great technical foundation for spring racing. That said I'd still prefer to finish ahead of our competition in fall racing, even if we haven't trained for it."

With the end of fall racing rapidly approaching, the Hawks will have plenty of time to work on their fitness over the winter training season. Coach Hill is looking forward to the spring season, "I am very excited for the spring sprint season. We have the talent, depth, and leadership necessary to bring several championship trophies back home to Hawk Hill."