The girls varsity crews of the Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowing team brought some medals back from the Saratoga Invitational regatta in New York April 27 and 28. Both boys and girls turned in strong finishes at the two-day competition. High winds caused multiple problems, including the cancellation of some races as well as a domino-effect fender bender that scratched the boys’ new racing shell on its maiden voyage.
Competition is next-level fierce at this annual event, with 1,200 entries from all of the East Coast powerhouse teams and from clubs as far away as Illinois. Buoys marked out 10 lanes across Fish Creek. Rowers and their coxswains raced 1,500-meter courses all day Saturday and on Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning races were 2,000 meters to give crews practice for the upcoming regional qualifiers for the national championship in June. Officials awarded medals in every flight.
Both the girls first varsity 4 and the double finished in third place on Saturday and went on to nab first- and second-place medals, respectively, on Sunday. The girls second varsity 4 won gold in the team’s last race Sunday afternoon. The girls first varsity 8 finished third at both distances.
On the boys side, senior Leo Sullivan finished fourth in the single on Saturday and fourth in the first varsity 4 as well.
Though tales of Saratoga rain and mud are the stuff of BA-B legends, this weekend was dry and temperate. Holly Hatton, the girls head varsity coach, noted that “the internet actually worked,” which was a refreshing change for the venue.
Winds kicked up Saturday afternoon, causing major issues on the starting line, where volunteers lie on their bellies on floating rafts called stakeboats. Crews have to line up with their stern pointed at the stakeboat, and the volunteers hold on until the race starts. “The very strong crosswind made it difficult to lock on to the stakeboat and then stay pointed up the course,” Hatton said. Many boats were disqualified because they could not get pointed and ended up perpendicular instead. “Our senior athletes who had raced here multiple times said they had never seen it that bad,” Hatton said.
The boys first varsity 8 lost 30 seconds when another boat ran into it, but their coach, Gary Piantedosi, said that given the conditions, there was no way the referees would restart the race. “No excuses, though,” he said. “We met the iron of the northeast region and found out how much work we have ahead of us,” Piantedosi said. “We race these teams again in three weeks for invitations to the national championship; we will be ready.”
BA-B novice crews who had traveled for their first Saratoga experience were unable to compete when officials canceled their races. The middle school girls got to test the waters, finishing seventh, but the middle school boys broke an oar on their way to the start and had to scratch. “We have been having problems with our oars breaking, and it’s just unfortunate that it happened in the race where the kids had traveled so far and prepared so well,” said Chris Whitbeck, who coaches middle school girls and boys and the novice boys.
The boys under-17 4 is a mixture of varsity and novice athletes. “They rowed late in the day Saturday with a pretty strong headwind,” Whitbeck said. “At 500 meters, all seven boats in the competition were lined up equally across Fish Creek. Our boys had a pretty strong race until about 1,000 meters, where the wind and competition got the best of them. We look at these first regattas as learning and coaching opportunities, so we’re looking forward to continued improvement that will make our team even more competitive.”
On Sunday, May 4, the team returns to home water for the Bare Hill Fun Regatta, a BA-B-only relay race for the middle school and novice rowers.
Best finishes from Saturday, Sunday
Varsity boys
- 1x: Leo Sullivan, fourth place, 6 minutes, 09.986 seconds; Patrick Tucker, ninth, 6:27.760
- 1V8+: Ulad Danilovich, Leo Sullivan, Parker Cole, Patrick Tucker, Henry Belanger, Shankara Rao, Aidan Nolde, Atticus Keep, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, fifth, 5:56.431
- 2V8+: Kyle Sharma, Alex Han, Noah Friedman, Liam Abayasinghe, Charlie Leuci, Dino Mehic, Reid Nelson, Alex Horton, and coxswain Austin Lai, sixth, 8:46.919
- 1V4+: Shankara Rao, Leo Sullivan, Aidan Nolde, Atticus Keep, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, fourth, 8:11.342
- 2V4+: Russell Poutasse, Jeffrey Wang, Gavin Datta, Alex Horton, and coxswain Noah Kim, fifth, 6:46.985; Parker Cole, Dino Mehic, Ulad Danilovich, Henry Belanger, and coxswain Topher Korka, fifth, 6:45.834
- U174: Julian Fariello, Oscar Maxwell, Reid Nelson, Patrick Tucker, and coxswain Austin Lai, sixth, 6:25.276
Varsity girls
- V2x: Johnny Greenberg and Emily Yang, third, 6:27.609; Nina Manglani and Elizabeth Feirouz, fifth, 6:47.773
- 1V4+: Will Stoddard, Beatrice Maxwell, Braeden Hartley, Emma Gregg, and coxswain Hanna Lem-Moustakas, first, 8:28.46
- 2V4+: Abby Depew, Abigail Hirschberg, Ellie Pulido, Johnny Greenberg, and coxswain Sofi Marder, first, 7:06.950; Reval Argow-Sniderman, Alexis Nichols, Caroline Buriank, Ellie Daly, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, fifth, 7:27.740
- V4x: Abby Depew, Piper Sheehan, Emma Lawson, Ellie Daly, 10th, 8:28.804
- 1V8+: Johnny Greenberg, Emily Yang, Emma Lawson, Ellie Daly, Will Stoddard, Emma Gregg, Braeden Hartley, Beatrice Maxwell, and coxswain Hanna Lem-Moustakas, third, 7:44.076
- 2V8+: Isabel Walker, Alexis Nichols, Abby Depew, Reval Argow-Sniderman, Caroline Burianek, Nina Manglani, Elizabeth Feirouz, Ava Dawn, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, fifth, 6:39.331
