On Sunday morning, record breaking cold did not stop The Gunston School crew team as they hosted their first regatta of the season. Visiting crews from Episcopal High School of Alexandria, VA and St. Paul’s School of Baltimore, MD, competed in several events on Gunston’s Corsica River campus.
Highlighted by victories in the Men’s Varsity 4+ and the Men’s Varsity 8+, the Gunston men’s team swept their races against St. Paul’s.
The morning started with Gunston Men’s Varsity 4+ taking the first race as they finished with a 15-second victory over the St. Paul’s Varsity 4+ with a winning time of 5:19.92. The boat was powered by Coxswain Lauren Covell ’17 of Annapolis and rowers Ben Jones ’17 of Chestertown, Garrett Rudolfs ’18 of Centreville, Alex Papadopoulos ’18 of Townsend, DE, and Captain Ethan Boone ’17 of Centreville.
The Men’s JV 4+, coxswained by Eli Schut ‘17 of Rock Hall, and rowed by Sam Wargotz ‘17 of Queenstown, Neel Patel ‘18 of Middletown, Mitchell Naumann ‘18 of Rock Hall, and Jack Xu ‘18 of Greensboro, followed the Varsity Crew’s lead to win their race by 7 seconds to finish with a time of 5:52.31.
The two crews later combined to row an 8-oared shell coxswained by Schut, where they again commanded the river and won in the closest race of the day. It was neck-and-neck at the finish line with the Gunston boat crossing only 3 seconds ahead of St. Paul’s with a time of 5:11.91.
The Gunston Women raced against crews from Episcopal High School in the Varsity 4+, Varsity 8+, Novice 4+, and Novice 8+ events. Episcopal bested Gunston in the Varsity 4+, where Gunston A, consisting of Coxswain Tong Shen ‘17 of Easton, Olivia Sherman ‘17 of Middletown, DE, Maddy Romberger ‘17 of Sudlersville, Aggie Raymond ‘16 of Easton and Kylee Naumann ‘16 of Rock Hall, finished second while Gunston B rowed by Natalie Purpora ‘16 of Centreville, Abby Miller ‘17 of Easton, Sarah Bryant ‘16 of Davidsonville, Natalie Prochaska ‘17 of Worton, and Coxswained by Michelle Pagan ‘19 of Chestertown, finished fourth.
The two Varsity 4+s combined to race the Varsity 8+, coxswained by Shen, finishing second to Episcopal.
The Gunston novice boys raced against their St. Paul’s counterparts in a less formal manner to get them ready for races later in the season.
The Girls novices raced twice in 8+s and once in a 4+. Gunston took the races in the 8+s while Episcopal won in the 4+.
“After weeks of challenging weather conditions our crews maintained an upbeat attitude which attributed to a strong season opener against very competitive crews from our region. We are now looking ahead to this Saturday’s 3rd Annual Gunston Invitational where we’ll get a glimpse of other Maryland schools that we will go up against at next month’s Maryland High School Rowing Championships at Washington College,” states Gunston Head Coach Nicky Stimpson.
Gunston will next take to the Corsica on April 16th for the 3rd Annual Gunston Invitational, racing seven visiting crews, making it the largest home regatta in school history. Racing will begin at 9:00 AM on Saturday.
Photo Attachments:
1. Photo Girls Crew
Girls Varsity 4 pictured left to right: Natalie Prochaska ’17, Sarah Bryant ’16, Aggie Raymond ’16 and Natalie Purpora ’16.
2. Girls Novice 8
Coach Graham Marks preparing the girls Novice 8 for their event.
3. Girls Novice
Left to right: Megan Prochaska ’19, Marisa Pisapia ’19 and Jo Wanner ’17.
4. Girls V4
Left to right: Olivia Sherman ’17, Maddy Romberger ’17, Aggie Raymond ’16, Kylee Naumann ’16 and coxswain Tong Shen ’17.
5. Regatta scene
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