Perl, MJRC aim for first-place ending

Boys’ eight, fours reach nationals

By: Justin Feil
   Mike Perl has enjoyed success in each of his first two trips to the USRowing National Youth Championships.
   Last year, the West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior helped the Mercer Junior Rowing Club heavyweight four reach the grand final. As a sophomore, he was coxswain for the lightweight four that won gold. He’s hoping to duplicate that rarest of medals as coxswain for this year’s MJRC heavyweight eight that will compete in the nationals that begin today and run to Sunday at Harsha Lake outside Cincinnati, Ohio.
   "This is the first year I’m in the eight," said Perl, who will cox for the Princeton University lightweight team next fall. "It’s quite an exciting time. It’s an extremely challenging event. People from all over the country come. It’s the big boys race.
   "The boat actually has all seniors except for one. It’s a last hurrah before graduation. There’s no better way to spend it than on the race course in Cincinnati with the eights from around the country."
   Other members of the MJRC heavyweight eight are, stroke to bow: Rick Zultner of West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Jack Mahoney of WW-P South, Justin Mills of Nottingham High School, Jimmy Newcombe of Princeton High School, Andrew Wagner of WW-P South, Tom Greany of PHS, Jared Williams of Hopewell Valley and Andrei Popescu of Montgomery High School.
   "They’ve had a pretty good year," said second-year MJRC boys’ coach Nick Anderson. "They won their regional to go to US Nationals. They’ve raced a lot of good teams and done well against their competition. They didn’t win all their races, but they were always in mix. The core of the boat has stayed the same.
   "The eight, I think, will be a close race. I think they’ll be in the mix. A lot of boats are relatively the same speed, at least on the East Coast. On the East Coast, we’re right in the mix. Hopefully we’re on the upside on the right day."
   Also racing at US Nationals representing MJRC is a heavyweight four and a lightweight four. Those boats were put together just before regionals by breaking apart the junior varsity eight boat.
   "It’s a fairly new lineup and set up," said Anderson, who is assisted by Simon Carcagno. "I have high hopes for both of those fours."
   Perl was in a heavyweight four last year and he is thrilled to have the chance to go for the national title in the feature event, the heavyweight eight, this year. The MJRC eight is peaking at the right time as witnessed by their regionals win three weeks ago.
   "We were up against some pretty intense crews," Perl said. "We had some amazing coaching to get us to the point we are. We were hopeful. We understood this is an extremely challenging event and had to step up our game to get to Cincinnati. As the season went on, we put our nose to the grindstone to get to this point. We were pretty confident with the coaching we have that we’d go to Cincinnati."
   When Perl got into the sport as a freshman, he never anticipated it being this successful this soon. He followed his sister, Stephanie, who just completed her sophomore year as a coxswain for the Princeton University women’s lightweight team, into the sport with MJRC.
   "The program is actually only six years old," Perl said. "It’s an extremely young program. In my four years, it’s grown a lot. When I started, it was a couple shells and a big hope to expand the program. This year, over a 120 different students from 14 different high school participated. It’s ballooned into this huge program.
   "We have Olympic coxswains and national team rowers and one of the best facilities out there. Resources and coaches have really transformed it. It’s turned into an elite rowing facility. We were hoping it would take off like it has. We didn’t know it would take off this quickly."
   The MJRC is getting to be a staple at the Youth Nationals. With three more boats going this year, the reputation continues to grow. Perl sees participation in MJRC as a way to continue to draw attention to the accomplishments coming out of his own backyard.
   "It’s given me balance," Perl said. "I retreat from school and work for crew. When I’m off the lake, I focus on school and friends. Crew has helped me to give back to the school community."
   Perl’s contributions are not lost on the rowing club. He brings unmatched experience to the heavyweight eight as a four-year coxswain.
   "Mike’s been a great asset for us," Anderson said. "As he’s gotten more experience, he’s not only become a better coxswain, but he’s enabled his crew to have its best performance.
   "A good coxswain can make a great difference in a boat," he added. "They can really help their crew along. A good coxswain can be the difference between a crew being mediocre and good."
   The MJRC is undoubtedly good. They’ll find out this weekend how they stack up against the country’s top boats.
   "At regionals," Perl said, "we got an understanding of how tough competition will be at nationals and a general understanding of where we stand. We’ve been having double practices, going at 5 a.m and 4 p.m. After regionals, we had a hunger to really go after this competition in Cincinnati and bring our best game to the lake.
   "With the double practices and this commitment to focusing on our goal at hand, the whole team has really bonded. There are only three crews going this year. We’re doing everything we can to bond as a crew to get us melding together. We’ve been hanging out, going to the movies, doing stuff together. It’s exciting. We’re all extremely pumped up for the competition. We’re looking forward to a good race and to represent the Mercer area."
   If all goes well, Mike Perl and the MJRC boys’ heavyweight eight will be returning Sunday with gold medals to show for it.
   "It’s a great honor to make it this far," Anderson said. "Not every crew makes it this far. At this point, I’m trying to get the crews to race to win. We’ll have to wait to see where we end up."