Golden regatta for E.L. Crossley
The senior men’s eight went to E.L. Crossley as Kennedy Keith, Alex Barnes, Alex Jastremski, Jeremy Langellan, Andrew Suthons, Chad Rusin, Neil Kennedy, Cam Veld and Fraser Darling rowed to victory. Photo by: Bill Potrecz
E.L. Crossley set the tone early that it once again planned to dominate the 73rd Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association championships Sunday on Martindale Pond.
Crossley’s junior men’s four with cox took home the gold in the second race of the day, crossing the finish line in a time of 7:43.04.
It was one of 11 gold medals for the Fonthill school, which captured the men’s efficiency championship.
“Our goal was to jump off the start and then come on and we did that,” stroke Owen Darling said. “We exceeded our expectations for this race.
“It was the smoothest race we’ve had all year. We were going hard all the way through and pulled through at the end.”
Darling said the crew have been together less than two weeks.
“Just a lot of kilometres,” Darling said, when asked how the crew got so good, so quickly.
Other members of the crew are cox Mayah Speck, Braiden Jaques, Andrew Learn and bow Zachary Kuhn.
Crossley’s Chris Rusin and Cam Veld were the next local crew to earn gold in the senior men’s 72 kg double.
Ridley took home their first gold when they rallied in the senior women’s quad.
“It was a fight but we’ve been training all year for this race and I think we ended up where we wanted at the end, obviously,” crew member Gabrielle Cook said.
Cook said they got off to a slow start.
“We didn’t lead the whole way. We were actually third or fourth for a good period of time,” she said. “We kept pushing it before each marker and we gained ahead of them.”
Cook said a gold was the goal.
“We came in saying we’re going to try as hard as we can go and hopefully get gold. We gave all we had today and it paid off.”
Other members of the crew are Alexandra Cook, Erin Broski and Eva Sabine.
Crossley was back on the podium in the senior men’s pair thanks to a terrific effort by Fraser Darling and Neil Kennedy.
“We rowed a good race,” Darling said. “We had a good start and we were out in front off the start and we just kept pushing and pushing and building on that. At the end, we had a nice comfortable lead and we stuck with it.”
The duo have been racing for four years.
“We’ve been in the same program and put a lot of miles in on the pair,” Darling said. “We’ve had some chemistry since the first time we’ve been together in a boat.
“We’ve won other races here but this is our first time together in a boat.”
Alex Jastremski gave Crossley its fourth gold with a win in the senior men’s single.
Darling and Kuhn followed in the next race with a gold in the junior men’s double.
The duo had about an hour between races after winning gold in the second race of the day.
“It’s really difficult, but there’s a lot of adrenaline,” Darling said of the short turnaround. “I did electrolytes and a little bit of food.
“You can’t think about being tired.”
Crossley battled early on with Port Credit.
“We were really close until about 1,000 metres,” Darling said.
Crossley added to their gold haul in the next race as Brooke Kew, Krista Zucco, Kora Curtis-Masse, Emma Leavens and Teja Chmay took home the senior women’s four with cox.
Grimsby’s Hailey Mercuri crossed the line first in the senior women’s 63 kg single for her school’s first gold of the day and second overall medal.
Ridley’s junior men’s 66-kilogram quad cruised to an easy win for the Tigers’ second gold of the day.
“From the start, we were a little shaky but we knew what we had to do,” David Bonifacio-Proietto said. “Through our moral values, we picked up the boat and kept going down the course.”
Gold wasn’t necessarily the goal.
“We’re more internal,” Bonifacio-Proietto added. “Our coaches always tell us to push our hardest and stay internal and not worry about anyone else but ourselves.
“We were up ahead so of course we could see all the other boats.”
Other crew members are Jose Zavala, Justin Wender and Connor Vorias.
Crossley’s junior men’s quad edged Skyline from Michigan to capture gold in an exciting finish.
“It wasn’t until the last little while that we were able to bring it up in front of them,” crew member Braiden Jaques said. “They were in front for almost the whole race.”
Jaques said it was imperative the crew stay calm while they worked hard to make up ground.
“Definitely before training, the instincts are to panic but we learned quickly panicking causes you not to race as hard and then you have no chance at all.”
Other members of the crew (Scott Nuccitelli, Michael Lilley) planned to celebrate by tossing bow Learn into the water once they got back to the island.
“That’s tradition,” Jaques said with a smile.
Crossley earned its seventh gold of the day in the senior women’s 63-kilogram four with cox when Mayah Speck, Lauryn Bench, Payton Learn, Olivia Bruin and Kieley Partridge prevailed.
Crossley’s next gold came in the senior women’s 59-kilogram quad as Lauren Nuccitelli, Peyton Learn, Kennedy Keith and Meghan Camplin cruised to an easy victory.
The senior men’s eight went to Crossley as Kennedy Keith, Alex Barnes, Alex Jastremski, Jeremy Langellan, Andrew Suthons, Chad Rusin, Neil Kennedy, Cam Veld and Fraser Darling rowed to victory.
Crossley then wrapped up the regatta with a win in the senior women’s eight, edging out a hard-charging TC Williams crew in the exciting finish. The winning crew was Brooke Kew, Lauryn Bench, Amber Drysdale, Emma Leavens, Kora Curtis-Masse, Krista Zucco, Jenna Veerman, Melanie Lachnit, Teja Chmay.
Local crews awarded silver were: Grimsby (Megan McIntosh, Marcella McLennan, Grace Weaver, Rebecca Dockray) in the junior women 59-kilogram quad; Grimsby (Isabel Frolick, Grace Humphrey) in the senior women’s 63-kilogram double; Ridley (Seth Moyer, Nolan Biscaro, Dmitri Kozak, Ethan Enns) in the senior men’s quad; Welland Centennial (Rachel Dellavalle, Sarah Couroux, Melanie Goertz, Madison Thomas) in the senior women’s quad; Ridley (Haonan Luo, Andreas Gomez, Lucas Wiley, Diego Rubio, Garrett Todd) in the junior men’s four with cox; E.L. Crossley (Keithan Woodhouse, Michael Lilley, Sam Nawrocki, Scott Nuccitelli) in the junior men’s 66-kilogram quad; Welland Notre Dame (Nicole Hare, Gillian Jansen) in the junior women’s double; Governor Simcoe (Nicholas Murray-Coplen, Mitchell Rogers, Andrew Barry, Liam Harris, Adam Banner) in the senior men’s four with cox; Blessed Trinity (Lauren Kelly) in the senior women’s single; Sir Winston (Madison Orlando-Jepsen, Jenny Connell) in the senior women’s pair; E.L. Crossley (Lauren Dudzik, Alex Barnes, Jacob Gula, Jeremy Langellan, Andrew Suthons) in the senior men’s four with cox; Ridley (Haonan Luo, David Bonifacio-Proietto, Justin Wender, Andreas Gomez, Lucas Wiley, Diego Rubio, Garrett Todd, Connor Vorias, Jose Zavala) in the junior men’s 72-kilogram eight; St. Francis (David Picard) in the junior men’s single; and, E.L. Crossley (Jacob Combe, Jacob Gula, Josh Lenson, Kiethan Woodhouse) in the senior men’s 66-kilogram quad.
Local crews awarded bronze were: Ridley (Alexandra Cook, Eva Sabine) in the senior women’s 63-kilogram double; Sir Winston (Hailin Wang, Johann May) in the senior men’s 72-kilogram double; Sir Winston (Carter Chopin, Cam Burgess, Benjamin Beaulne, Ewan Chapman, Alexander Wang) in the junior men’s four with cox; E.L. Crossley (Chole Keith, Samantha Barnes, Samantha Green, Arden Schirru) in the junior women’s quad; Sir Winston (Julie Hiscock, Makenna Geoffroy, Joylynn Haymes, Sara Butler, Yaz Savas, Brooklyn Wiley, Ashley Harris, Devyn Boutin, Victoria Brown) in the junior women’s eight; E.L. Crossley (S. Oord-Cunningham, Samantha Barnes) in the junior women’s double; Saint Michael (Katerina Verbraeken, Hannah Bray) in the senior women’s pair; Sir Winston (Johann May) in the senior men’s single; Grimsby (Isaiah Yoder, Michael Boudreau, Ryan Holland, Max Caruso, Justin Peters) in the senior men’s four with cox; Grimsby (Isabel Frolick, Grace Humphreys) in the senior women’s double; and, Sir Winston (Tyler Vanderloos, Ashraf Salih, Burak Turanal, Eric Scott) in the senior men’s 66-kilogram quad;
This oar that: Larry Holmes of the Brockville RC and Brett Miller of the Ottawa RC were given the CSSRA Lifetime Service Award for contributions to high school athlete/ rowing development . . . Branksome Hall from Toronto won the junior women’s eight. Maggie Shanahan, daughter of Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, is a member of the crew. Dad was on hand to see his daughter’s big win . . . Next year’s regatta is scheduled for Friday, May 31-June 2, 2019.
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