Teams show promise in first meet
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By HUGH RIST
For the News & Messenger
Published: March 31, 2008
Two local schools, Hylton and Gar-Field did not take part in the event because it was for varsity rowers only. Potomac coach, Pete Haberkost, who said he normally does not have boats race in the event either, said his main objective was to “ease them (his rowers) into the feeling.”
“Normally, this race is either cancelled due to weather, or I haven’t had enough varsity rowers to think about putting boats out there,” Haberkost said. “In practices, I had been rowing varsity rowers with novices, so we really hadn’t had much of an opportunity for these rowers to row with each other before.”
Although Potomac’s two boats, both girls’ fours, finished next to last in each of their heats, Haberkost said he was happy with their performance, especially of the first four, which consisted entirely of sophomores and also had three of four rowers, who are normally lightweights, rowing against teams of more experienced row-ers.
The first four, which was coxed by Connor Schwalm, had Megan Haycook in stroke, Mena Tarin, Tory Pug-liese, and Victoria Walker in bow. The boat finished fifth in its heat with a time of 8:25.2
“They were disappointed when they came out of the water,” Haberkost said. “But I told them I was really quite pleased considering the competition they were rowing against.”
Potomac’s second four consisted of coxswain Ashley Payne, Callie Roadcap (stroke), Taylor Bentley, Keisha Williams, and Christina Silas (bow).
The regatta used floating starts for all the races, which makes the times hard to judge, according to Wood-bridge boys’ coach Mike Malak because of the possible variance of distances rowed in each race.
Woodbridge and Forest Park fared much better, with Forest Park’s varsity girls’ quad taking second place with a respectable time of 6:47.4. The quad featured Ciera Mead in stroke, Stephanie Lieb, Nicole Meyer, and Becca Lee in bow.
The Bruins’ boys’ quad also placed second, nearly two seconds behind first-place Thomas Jefferson. The seats, listed in descending order were: Jessie Cole, coxswain; Ethan Brinkley (stroke), Matt Sjelin, Brett Dish-ler, Brian Gresko, Drew Talbott, Joe SeSalva, Alex Horne, and bow Sean Lantto.
Woodbridge’s first varsity eight emerged the winner in a tight race that was virtually even going into the last 300 meters and ended with the top four boats within seven-tenths of a second of each other. The boat was coxed by junior Katie Garrity, sophomore Matt Doody (stroke), junior Tyler Dawson, junior Val Stutz, junior J. C. Fisher, freshman Brad Jones, junior Aaron Bish, sophomore Dan Schrei, and sophomore bow Alex Narro.
According to Malak, Woodbridge remains the only Prince William County school to win a first varsity eight race, having also won in 2003 and 2006.
The Vikings’ girls’ first varsity eight had not rowed together much in early practices, Malak said, but still finished second (5:50.1), nearly four seconds behind Woodson.
Coxswain Danielle Woods said, “We learned a lot from this race and we should get faster as the season pro-gresses.”
The lineup for that boat consisted of senior stroke Laura Doody, senior Paula Coughlin, sophomore Allison Mayberry, sophomore Katherine Changes, sophomore Kristina Janitshek, junior Sarah Lindemann, senior Kaelynn Benedicto, and sophomore bow Catherine Tallman.
The Vikings’ girls light eight, which had three freshman, three sophomores, and two junior rowers behind a sophomore coxswain finished second, while the boys light eight finished fifth.
Next Saturday area rowers will take part in the Walter Mess Regatta on the Occoquan at Sandy Run Park.
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