The Maritime College crew team has given several stellar performances this season, but this past weekend at the Head of the Occoquan we excelled with two first place wins and five boats overall medaling.
The strenuous and winding five kilometer course was no challenge for the Maritime Crew team, who is more than used to rowing through the rough pre-dawn waters of the East River. This training prepared the rowers and coxswains both for victory at this regatta held in scenic Springfield, Virginia. The Men's Novice Four, consisting exclusively of freshmen rowers and led by BU trained coxswain Dana Rauch, proved that Maritime has superior skill as they took 1st in their race against other similarly well recognized teams. We stunned the competition by taking 3rd in this race and as well.
Altogether the team won twenty nine medals, proving that this season, like many others in its glorious past; Maritime is keeping up with big names such as Carnegie Mellon, George Mason, and William and Mary. These were just some of the competing schools that Martime surpassed to win in the Men's Collegiate Novice Eight. Coxed by freshman Ben Longworth (Wilton, Conn./), Maritime's boat overtook the University of Maryland College Park in the race of the day and reached the finish line with just a tenth of a second lead. Only a meager three second margin separated the 1st and 3rd place time. Athletes Justin Alsdorf (Bethel, N.Y./Sullivan West), Kevin Brennan (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville), Russell Stuebe (Old Tappan, N.J./), Ricky Damiano (Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood), Andrew Pisano (/), Russ Cox (/), Jay Bradford (Ocean, NJ/) and Joe Atkins (/) led the way for more wins to come at the Occoquan.
The women, Jackie McCarron, Keia Armbrister, Chelsea Frate and Shayna Michaels, did very well under the direction of coxswain Danielle Grisson taking 3rd in the Women's Novice Four, making this their third medaling finish of the season.
Other great performances included the Novice Lightweight Eight's race in which they came in 6th out of eighteen and the Men's Collegiate Four had a superb race finishing 7th out of seventeen. We expect more great things from the Maritime Crew Team in the final weeks of the season to follow.
