News Detail
Girls' Varsity Four finds success at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta
The girls crew team traveled to Cherry Hill, N.J. to compete in the 92nd Stotesbury Cup Regatta.
This was the first time the regatta was not contested on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The forecast of several days of rain forced the regatta committee to move the regatta to the nearby racecourse on the Cooper River in New Jersey.
With approximately one thousand boats in the regatta, every crew must compete in a time trial on Friday to seed the semi-finalists. The water conditions were less than ideal with a steady rain and strong headwind. Episcopal’s junior four, Amelia Stacey ‘19, Gardiner McGuire ‘19, Reid Jamieson ‘20, Isabelle Bechtel ‘20, and Arden Faires ‘19, faced a 15-20 mph wind that was blustery. A few gusts definitely swept through the course while the junior four was racing. Rowing a long stroke and controlling their blades at the catch, this boat put forth a solid performance. The crew placed 22nd out of 61 boats, failing to make the top 12 cutoff. This young crew can be proud of posting the 9th-best performance in program history.
Though the winds seemed to diminish slightly when the senior four approached the starting line, the chop of the water was still substantial. Avery Faires ‘18, Sidney Lewis ‘19, Juliet Faris ‘19, Gray Shiverick ‘19, and Sabrina Teope ‘18, were able to pass one crew that started almost 30 seconds in front of them. As in previous races this season, the crew under stroked many of their competitors, but was also able to spike the stroke rating in the closing 500 meters to earn a position in the semi-finals by placing 16th out of 53 boats. Looking at the results, it was evident the senior four could race with crews who placed in the top 10. With 18 crews advancing, the top two crews from each of the three semi-finals would advance to the grand final.
In Saturday’s semifinal, the headwind had lessened, but it was still blowing enough to slow crews about 45 seconds over the 1500 meter race. The four focused on rowing their own race during the first 1000 meters—attacking the catch while making sure not to over compress the legs. The crew got off the starting platform well and settled into 3rd position. During the second 500 meters, the top two crews, Lower Merion and Langley, began to move away from the other crews. As the boats passed the 1000-meter mark, Episcopal had slipped to 6th place. The race plan was to begin the last 500 meters with another “power 20” and then execute the sprint sequence. With about 10 strokes from the finish line, the four had rowed through three boats and sat in 3rd place. Episcopal was not able to hold off Holy Spirit’s last charge and finished in 4th place by only 0.6 seconds. The senior four’s time had the 11th fastest time in the semi-finals and were only 0.7 seconds behind Stone Bridge, the Virginia State silver-medalists.
This marks the seventh time in the past nine years that Episcopal has been able to place a boat into the semifinals. Congratulations to both boats on their collective performances this season.
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Seat
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Senior Four
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Junior Four
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1
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Avery Faires
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Amelia Stacy
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2
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Sidney Lewis
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Gardiner McGuire
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3
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Juliet Faris
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Reid Jamieson
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4
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Gray Shiverick
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Isabelle Bechtel
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C
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Sabrina Teope
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Arden Faires
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