Written by Jamie Francis, assistant rowing coachPHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Mercyhurst University men's lightweight rowing team traveled to Philadelphia this weekend to open up the season against the University of Pennsylvania and came away with two wins.
The first race of the day was the varsity four of
Kevin McCarthy,
Amel Younis, Doug Riethmuller,
Samuel Sheridan, and
Sam Rouse. McCarthy's four was able to make their way down the cold Schuylkill River with a time of 6:49.1 compared to UPenn's 7:17.8.
Next up was the Lakers' freshman eight coxed by
Charles Hummel with
Jonas Weller,
Patrick Salvatore,
Galen Bernick,
Nemanja Uzanovic,
Zackary Ghalayini,
Bernardo Ramirez,
Anthony Delgreco, and
Danny Madden. The freshmen lined up against Penn's freshman eight and third varsity eight and came away with the win (5:50.1) by crossing the finish line eight seconds ahead of Penn's freshmen (5:58.1), with Penn's third eight (5:59.8) another second behind.
The final race of the day, varsity eight, kept Mercyhurst from sweeping Penn on their home water.
Brian Comey,
Milos Veres,
Nicholas Wnek,
Jonathan Blazevic,
Blaze Kelly,
Jake Lennon,
Gary Loo,
Aaron Dowd, and
Harrison Kieffer sat on the start line across from Penn's varsity and second varsity eights. After the start, Penn's varsity eight pulled away from the other two boats to battle down the course. Penn's 2V (5:57.5) bested the Lakers by .4 seconds, while the Quaker 1V (5:49.3) crossed a full eight seconds ahead of the Lakers (5:57.9).
"This winter has held on longer than we would have liked, but it's encouraging to see some positive results against a tough opponent," said Mercyhurst head coach
Adrian Spracklen. "We appreciate Penn hosting us and hope to see how we stack up against them later in the season."
The men's team will join forces with the women's team and travel to Mercer Lake, New Jersey to compete in the Knecht Cup on April 11 and 12. You can
follow the team's progress on Twitter.
