Boys’ lightweight four wins gold; girls’ lightweight eight silver at nationals
By: Justin Feil
Two Mercer Junior Rowing Club boats made history Sunday.
The boys’ lightweight four with coxswain became the first MJRC crew to win a national title when they won the gold medal at the USRowing National Youth Invitational Championships on Harsha Lake in Amelia, Ohio.
"Last year, Mercer only took one boat, the heavyweight eight," said Rob Abraham, a junior at West Windsor-Plainsboro South. "I was in the second varsity boat. I went to Cincinnati and saw them race (and finish fourth). It was a lot of motivation. I wanted to get to that point. Winning made all the hard work and sweat worthwhile."
Also Sunday, the girls’ lightweight eight became the first female MJRC crew to reach the National Youth Invitational Championships and placed second, barely four seconds behind the Oakland (Calif.) Strokes.
"It’s a great way to leave," said Tae Richmond, who just finished her senior year at Stuart Country Day. "I love this boat. We’ve come so far. So many crews have been together for years. Being one of the first girls to qualify and winning second at nationals, I’ll never forget it."
Richmond is the lone senior in a boat that figures to be strong again next year. She won’t get too far away. She’ll attend Lawrenceville School for a post-graduate year in the fall.
"I’ll be right next door," said Richmond, the lightweight eight’s stroke seat. "I’ll be able to see them."
Richmond’s teammates who are expected to return to the MJRC are: cox Rebecca Fein of Princeton Day School, seven-seat Phoebe Getzow of WW-P South, six-seat Amanda Gettelfinger of WW-P South, five-seat Jessica Harris of Stuart, four-seat Erin Conlon of WW-P South, three-seat Katherine Thompson of Stuart, two-seat Katie Suyo of Pennington and bow seat Erin Tormey of WW-P South. Tom Paradiso is the girls’ coach, while Allentown’s Mallory Kowalczyk was an alternate after rowing in the boat much of the year.
Abraham isn’t as certain about the future of the championship lightweight four boat though there isn’t a senior in it. He’s the most veteran of the crew members, and he’s only a junior.
"From the heavyweight eight, we’re losing five seniors," he said. "They might need people to come up in the eight. We have a fall season where we won’t row fours, we’ll stick with eights. It would be great to defend the title, but we might have to row eights.
"I think it’s a stepping stone. All the guys in my boat and all the guys on my team want to do what’s best for the team. Whatever the lineup is, we’re going to go out and pull hard and whatever the race, we’re going out to win."
Abraham’s boat had a heavy local influence. Joining him on the championship team are: Michael Perl, the cox from WW-P South, three-seat Justin Mills of Northern Burlington High, two-seat Rick Zultner from WW-P North and bow seat Jimmy Newcombe of Princeton High. Marty Crotty coaches the boys.
"This is actually the first year we rowed in lightweight boats," Abraham said. "A lot of times, I’ve been in the second varsity (heavyweight) boat. This year, we split into a lightweight eight and we didn’t have much success. About mid-April, our coaches put us in this lineup with a four.
"The second day in the four, we had a practice with a girls’ eight, which should be of comparable speed. We had a good practice. From then on, we stuck with the lineup and we just clicked. I think we all have the same mentality. We go out and don’t think much, but we pull hard. We have good chemistry on and off the water. Everyone wants to pull for each other because we like each other. We have the mentality that every day we want to get faster. That culminated with two really fast races this weekend."
The MJRC boys led almost three-quarters of the final. While the opposing crews tried to make a move 500 meters into the race, the MJRC stayed with them and didn’t make it’s move until the 850-meter mark. It opened up a small lead that grew and grew. MJRC won in 7 minutes, 28.08 seconds, which was 7.63 seconds faster than runner-up Marin (Calif.) Rowing Association. Upper Arlington (Va.) High was third.
"We were a little disappointed about regionals," Abraham said. "Finishing second gave us some good motivation. We wanted to go to Cincinnati and have a good showing."
Both the boys’ lightweight and girls’ eight boats finished second at regionals, and only the top two teams from the Northeast Regionals advanced to nationals.
"We knew we had work to do," said MJRC head coach and program director Sean McCourt. "We made some changes and it worked out for us. For a (girls’) team that barely squeaked in, we did a lot of work and picked up a lot of speed."
In the almost three weeks between regionals and nationals, the MJRC teams instituted a twice-per-day practice schedule. The girls also made a pair of changes, subbing Fein for a novice cox and Conlon, a former heavyweight eight rower, for Kowalczyk.
"It wasn’t a nine-person boat," Richmond said. "It was a 10-person boat. Mallory had just as much a part of it as we did. Erin helped because she switched from a varsity boat. Switching in Rebecca Fein for a novice coxswain was great. We knew we’d have her confidence. It turned out to be important we had her because our steering broke again, in the first 100 meters of the finals, and because Becky knew what to do, they were able to stop the race and fix it. A novice wouldn’t know that.
"We went on to place second in the nation. It was not only impressive to other crews, but we impressed ourselves as well. It was scary. For a minute there, we thought we blew nationals by our steering going."
It would have been par for the course for the MJRC girls. From all their trials and tribulations, it would have been difficult to guess that a silver-medal boat was forming.
"We had a very rough season with tons of ups and downs," Richmond said. "We’ve had so many problems. One time, our steering broke and we almost ran us into a cement wall. Another time, our novice coxswain steered us off course. And we almost missed a race."
Even at the regionals, the two-seat came off during the race, forcing her and the bow seat to stop rowing in the middle of the race. Yet, they only lost by 2.8 seconds.
"Even though it was a good race," Richmond said, "we only thought the first boat would go to nationals. We were devastated."
That feeling quickly turned to elation when the girls’ lightweight eight discovered that it too had qualified for nationals. The girls improved rapidly in the final three weeks of the season and joined the boys in making history for the Mercer Junior Rowing Club at nationals Sunday.