Haddonfield Crew Competes on Cooper River

Submitted by the Haddonfield Crew Club:

Come support Haddonfield Crew this weekend on the Cooper River as it competes in the Garden States and Cooper Cup regattas. Last year, the team walked away with several medals and this year should prove to be just as exciting.

Haddonfield Crew will also be racing on the Schuylkill River in the Philadelphia City Championships on May 5, and May 17-18 in the Stotesbury Cup. HCC will be rowing on May 24-25 in the SRAA Regatta on the Cooper River.

The spring rowing season has gotten off to a strong start for the Haddonfield Crew team. Kicking off the season with a solid performance in the C.R.A.S.H.-B Sprints in Boston. The team has kept up the momentum through the early season races on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

Fifteen rowers represented the team in the 2013 C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championship held at Boston University over Presidents Day weekend in February. Competing in the event were : Andrew Deluca, Louis Epstein, Veronica Fisher, Nick Gangemi, Colin George, Kilian Graves, Paul Hurd, Megan Knecht, Kaitlyn McConville, Nick Ruggero, Helene Schlitt, Allison Sparrow, Anna Sparrow, Emily Stasi and Samantha Verzella. Coxswains Taylor Buttaro and Julia Gallwitz also participated. It was an exciting afternoon as eight rowers set personal records, including all of the men.

Haddonfield has had strong showings in the early season Manny Flick/Horvat Series races on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. In their first race of the season on March 24, the Boys JV8 (Hurd, Gilmartin, Epstein, Dye, Ruggiero, Kelley, George, Gangemi, Gallwitz) won their heat, putting them in position to compete against the top boats in their category in the remaining Manny Flick events. The Girls 2^nd Eight (Butler Basner, Wilkinson, Ragone, Fisher, Blau, Levin, Donohue, Coates, Kommedal) had a strong showing, coming in third behind tough competition.

The following weekend brought another cold, windy day on the Schuylkill, but the Girls Varsity 8 (McConville, Sparrow (Anna), Verzella, Knecht, Schlitt, Stasi, D’Anella-Mercanti, Sparrow (Allison), Buttaro) raced to a 2^nd place finish in their heat and 3^rd overall. The Boys JV4 (Howe-Smith, DeLuca, Giangiulio, Walters, McCaughey) had a strong finish at 3^rd in their first race in this category.

Manny Flick #4 on April 14 brought two first place finishes for Haddonfield Crew as both the Girls JV4 (Wilkinson, Blau, Fisher, Donohue, Kommedal) and Freshman 8 (George, Schmitt, Levin, Beatty, O'Brien, Small, Sperandio, Reese, Hart) prevailed in their respective heats.