Lucky seven for Crossley at CSSRA
E.L. Crossley’s CSSRA champion junior men’s double (Zachary Kuhn and Scott Nuccitelli) race down the Henley Island course Sunday.
E.L. Crossley was in seventh heaven at the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Regatta Sunday on Henley Island.
The Fonthill school took home seven gold medals at the 74th edition of the regatta and once again captured the women’s efficiency trophy.
Crossley finished the 38-race regatta with seven golds, three silvers and a pair of bronze medals.
Crossley head coach John Ruscitti was pleased with another strong effort by his crews at the CSSRA championships.
“It was a great showing,” he said. “We always come in going after the men’s and women’s banners and the kids executed and did their jobs.”
Ruscitti wasn’t surprised by any of his team’s results.
“I don’t think so today, but in the last couple of weeks our women’s program has stepped up a little bit which is great,” he said. “Our men have been solid all year as well, but when you come here, you race the best.”
Crossley’s success is based on a collaborative effort by the athletes, coaches and parents.
“We are a big team, 60 people, and there’s a lot of moving parts,” he said. “In order to get everybody on the same page, we’re a dedicated team, we work hard and we don’t make any bones about it.
“To make that happen, we have to have buy-in from everybody: our parents; our administrator, the coaches and the kids.”
The first local crew to earn gold Sunday was the Denis Morris junior women four with cox (Cate Whittard, Nyla Yungblut, Madisyn Richards, Rylie Wake, Kaitlyn Potashnyk).
“I think we had the motivation from the other boats,” Potashnyk said. “Usually we have open waters, but we were really close. I believe that it was because we were close and had actual competition right beside us, it pushed us and made us win.”
The crew previously finished second at the Mother’s Day Regatta and first at the South Niagara Invitational.
Adam Pozzebon and James Sisley of Saint Paul Catholic High School captured gold in the senior men’s 72-kilogram double.
“We’ve been training hard to whole year; We’ve come first in every regatta,” Sisley said. “We were feeling pretty confident we could give it a big shot this year.”
The crew led from start to finish.
“They were pulling in right on us at the end and almost caught us so we had to give is all we had.”
The Ridley crew of Erin Broski, Gabrielle Cook, Charlotte Drennan and Alexandra Cook took home the school’s first gold of the regatta in the senior women’s quad. Drennan and Cook earlier teamed up for silver in the senior women’s 63-kilogram double.
“It was pretty close from the start but we started pushing ahead around the 500 (metre) mark,” Cook said.
Cook said the crew was confident heading into the race.
“We knew we had a chance, we didn’t know by how much we were going to be out front. We left it to the course and wanted to see what we could do and pushed ahead right from the start.”
Janna Paquin, Arden Schiruu, Sam Green and Meredtih Hillmayer gave Crossley their first gold in the junior women’s quad.
Crossley’s Zachary Kuhn and Scott Nuccitelli followed that up with another gold in the junior men’s double.
“It was very close leading up to the first 1,000,” Nuccitelli said. “We knew we had to get going so we started to pick up our rate.”
Jenna Veerman, Kora Curtis-Masse, Teja Chmay, Krista Zucco and Shaelyn Topliffe cruised to an easy win to give Crossley their third straight gold in the senior women’s four with cox.
“It was definitely still a dog fight,” Veerman said. “They had us off the start so we had to make our way for the last little while.”
Veerman said the crew was cautiously optimistic heading into the race.
“You never really know in the finals. Every new race is a new race.”
Veerman, Curtis-Masse, Chmay, Zucco and Topliffe later teamed up in the senior women’s heavy eight where they again took home gold with Meghan Camplin, Lauren Nuccitelli, Seyene Oord, Emma Leavens and Lauren Dudzik.
Green and Hillmayer of Crossley came home with gold in the junior women’s double.
“We work really well together. We’re the exact same height and exact same power,” Green said. “It felt pretty easy.”
The gold was the second for Green and Hillmayer, who earlier teamed up with Paquin and Schiruu in the junior women’s quad.
“It felt amazing. We were in the stern pair so we were together again,” Green said.
The crew didn’t have much time between races.
“It was mentally (difficult). It was, ‘Oh no, now we have to do it all over again.’ ”
Hailey Mercuri of Grimsby edged out the competition to earn gold in the senior women’s single.
Fernando Vaca, Ben Hopkins, Carl Edelman, Efe Tanriverdi, Oleskil Skida, Shane Keagan, Rain Yeung, Calum Murphy and Sascha Jansen-Rudan brought home Ridley’s second gold of the day in the junior men’s eight.
The crew were all smiles following the race and were poised to toss cox Jansen-Rudan into the water before being stopped at the last minute by officials, much to the dismay of the crew and the fans in the grandstand.
Paquin, Madsen, Camplin, Nuccitelli and Dudzik stroked their way to victory for Crossley in the senior women’s 64-kilogram cox four.
Evan MacRae of A.N. Myer completed high school’s Triple Crown with an easy win in the senior men’s 72-kilogram single. MacRae already had victories at the Stotesbury Cup in Philadelphia and the varsity boys single at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America championships in Ohio.
Crossley continued their run of gold when Nate Prevost, Evan Pooley, Owen Nicholls, Patrick Mayr, Matt Jinks, Nicholas Shawanda, Preston Darling, Trevor Lachnit and Tayah Clare triumphed in the junior men’s 72-kilogram eight.
The crew chose to head back to Henley Island rather than stop at the finish line and collect their medals as is the usual procedure, a race later in the day notwithstanding.
Ridley’s Davide Bonifacio-Proietto, Conner Varies, Justin Wender and Jack Petrunick earned their third gold of the day in the senior men’s 55-kilogram quad.
“Oh man it’s crazy. It’s my fourth year and I’ve never won this before. It’s got my adrenaline going for sure,” Petrunick said. “Previously, we’ve had good years but the whole program has been so great. Ridley started out strong this year and the environment has been so great.
“It was our hardest race of the year. We were bow-to-bow with these boys from Shawnigan and then we gave it our all and came out on top.”
Grimsby wrapped the day with a gold in the senior men’s eight. Crew members are Ryan Holland, Aaron Krick, Justin Peters, Max Caruso, Jared Boles, Liam Penner, Christian McAlpine, Michael Bourdeau and Isaiah Yonder.
“I’m so proud of the boys,” McApline said. We’ve been training with almost the same group since Grade 9 and I’m in Grade 12. It’s amazing to go from where we started to here.
“It was a ton of work over the winter. Our coach (Brian Fisher) pushes us as hard he could every day. He knew we all wanted it so he could push us like that and it paid off.”
Locals crews to place second were: E.L. Crossley junior men’s four with cox (George Martinson, Zachary Kuhn, Trevor Lachnit, Michael Lilley, Shaelyn Topliffe); Ridley senior women’s 63-kilogram double (Charlotte Drennan, Gabrielle Cook); Governor Simcoe senior men’s pair (Joe Coughler, Andrew Barry); St. Michael junior men’s double (Joshua Cournoyea, Payton Gauthier); St. Francis junior men’s 66-kilogram quad (Julio Diaz, Maceo Tripodi, Leo Saporito, Hayden Arnold); David Picard of St. Francis in the senior men’s 72-kilogram single; Grimsby in the senior men’s 72-kilogram four with cox (Jared Boles, Ryan Holland, Christian McAlpine, Michael Boudreau, Isaiah Yonder); Ridley (Erin Broski, Lucy Black) in the senior women’s double; E.L. Crossley (Scott Nuccitelli) in the junior men’s single; E.L. Crossley (Seyene Oord and Emma Leavens) in the senior women’s pair in event.
Local crews to place third were: Grimsby junior women’s 59-kilogram quad (Kaelyn Mercuri, Kylie Mercuri, Jodi Friesen, Grace Weaver); Ridley junior men’s four with cox (Carl Edelmann, Shane Keagan, Alex Skilda, Efe Tanriverdi, Sascha Jansen-Rudan); Ridley senior men’s 72-kilogram eight (Conner Vorias, Jack Petrunick, Diego Rubino, Matthew Hopkins, Garrett Todd, Nikolas Schramm, Lucas Wiley, Andreas Gomez, Sophia Sharpe); E.L. Crossley senior men 72-kilogram double (Owen Darling, Andrew Suthons); E.L. Crossley senior men’s pair (Owen Darling, Campbell Veld); Ridley junior women’s quad (Vanessa Russell, Ella McRae, Ipek Derinkok, Claire Sun); Notre Dame junior men’s double (Ethan Engel, William Capes); Denis Morris senior women’s cox four (Cait Whittard, Nyla Yungblut, Madisyn Richards, Rylie Wake, Kaitlyn Potashnyk); Lakeshore Catholic senior women 63-kilogram single (Rowan O’Neill); Grimsby (Grace Weaver, Grace Dockray) in the junior women’s double; Blessed Trinity (Thea Freer, Kayla Whitnell, Hannah Locco, Gina Pieneman, Bianca Faraci) in the senior women’s 63-kilogram four with cox; Kai Bartel of Eden in the senior men’s 72-kilogram single; and, St. Paul (Chris Sisley) in the junior men’s single.
Next year’s regatta will be held June 5-7.
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