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THREE NA CREWS EARN INVITATION TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio pitted North Allegheny against forty-four other school districts from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, with over two thousand competitors seeking recognition as the best crews in events ranging from single sculls to eight person boats.  After two days of racing, the NA Varsity Men’s Quad (Seniors John Rectenwald, Nick Neugebauer, Jake Lennon and Junior Sam Sheridan), Women’s JV Quad (Sophomores Julianna Malachin, Alana Marin, Jackie Dallier, Leah Griffin) and Men’s JV Quad (Sophomores Aodhan Ridenour, David Tallman, Derek Coleman and Justin Kim) represented North Allegheny on the Medal Stand by winning Gold medals in each of their respective events.  As a result of these victories, the Men’s Varsity Quad received an invitation to the US Rowing Youth National Championship to be held in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on June 8-9.  Similarly, the Women’s and Men’s Junior Varsity boats were invited to compete at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Championship in Camden, New Jersey on May 25-26.

In addition to the Gold medals, North Allegheny’s Women’s Varsity Quad (Juniors Kaitlyn Clem, Gillian Lawhead, Heather Ott and Senior Claire Barber) won a Bronze Medal in their event. 

Other accomplishments of interest were that all of North Alleghney’s entries but two made it to finals competition.  The Men’s Novice Four ranked sixth out of 32 boats and the Women’s Novice Eight ranked ninth out of 16 boats.  In the Women’s Lightweight Doubles event, Allison Bostedo and Heather Ott took Fourth Place and Gillian Lawhead and Claire Barber took fifth.  Rounding out the NA entries were Men’s Varsity Quad (Sean Reardon, Braedon Jelinek, Kevin Fink, Eric McQuiston), Men’s JV Quad (Aaron Reckless, Robby Dunbar, Dylan Reffitt and Wyatt Weaver) and Men’s Lightweight Doubles (Aaron Reckless and Wyatt Weaver)..

The next challenge for NA Rowing will be this weekend at the Stotesbury Cup in Philadelphia.  This regatta is the largest scholastic rowing event in the world with over five thousand competitors.  Good luck, NA!

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PITTSBURGH SCHOLASTIC SPRINTS

Sunday, May 6 was a near perfect day to race at the Pittsburgh Scholastic Sprints on the Allegheny River.  The course was 1500 meters and eleven schools, including North Allegheny, Fox Chapel, Upper St. Clair, Mount Lebanon, Central Catholic, North Catholic, Alderdice, Oakland Catholic, First Row (Pittsburgh Public), Hampton and Pine Richland came prepared to determine how the local competition ranked against each other.  At the end of the day, North Allegheny was the overall leader in total medals, achieving medals in fifteen events.  Next on the medal count was was Fox Chapel with twelve medals.

The racing for NA began with the Men’s Varsity Double event which had Senior John Rectenwald and Junior Sam Sheridan in the First Place boat and Seniors Jake Lennon and Nick Neugebauer taking Second Place.  These four rowers would later on in the day team up in the Men’s Quad to collect a Gold Medal.  Following their teammates to the medal stand were the JV Quad composed of Aodhan Ridenour, Justin Kim, Derek Coleman and David Tallman, who made a valiant effort to catch their senior teammates and taking Silver.  The time difference between these boats was only nine seconds.  Coming in fourth was NA’s third entry in the Quad event, consisting of Aaron Reckless, Robby Dunbar, Dylan Reffitt and Wyatt Weaver.

On the women’s side, North Allegheny again was very successful in the Quads.  First Place Gold medals went to Julianna Malachin, Jackie Dallier, Alana Marin and Leah Griffin.   In a very spirited race, NA’s second Quad entry, led by Kaitlyn Clem as stroke, Heather Ott, Claire Barber and Gillian Lawhead, took Silver as they closed within 3 seconds of the NA first place boat.  As in the men’s quad event, NA’s third entry took fourth place, coming within six seconds of third.  Crew members were Adrianna Marrero, Evelyn Immonen, Alex Rind and Courtney Ferguson.

In the Novice category, the men’s novice four was coxed by Nicole Tarazona and rowed by Jim Brandt, Evan Tony, Mark Rad and Dylan Reffitt.  They powered their way to a Silver Medal, nearly missing Gold by three seconds.  The Women’s Novice Eight (Michelle Xu, Lydia Schweiger, Sarah Heastings, Morgan Smyers, Alex Rind, Katie Jones, Natalie Stahl, MacKenzie Deller, Hadleigh Roy) captured a Bronze Medal by overcoming the Pine Richland Eight in the last five hundred meters, beating them by a bow ball.

The Men’s JV Four, with Nicole Tarazona as coxswain and Sean Reardon, Braedon Jelinek, Kevin Fink and Jim Brandt added more medals to NA’s treasure chest by winning Silver, again only three seconds away from Gold.

The Dynamic Duo of Sophomores Aaron Reckless and Wyatt Weaver rowed to a very respectable Bronze Medal in the Men’s Lightweight Double

In the Womens’ Doubles events, NA took Gold (Allison Bostedo, Heather Ott) and Silver (Claire Barber, Gillian Lawhead) in the Lightweight class.  In the JV Double race, Kaitlyn Clem and Leah Griffin easily won Gold by over sixteen seconds better than their nearest competitor. 

The next step to a National Championship takes North Allegheny to Cincinnati, Ohio this weekend to compete in the Midwest Scholastic Championship.  All of NA’s boats have one goal in mind---win an invitation to US Rowing Youth Nationals or the Scholastic Rowing Association of America National Championship.  Go Tigers!

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TIGERS EARN DOUBLE-DIGIT MEDALS AT GOVERNORS CUP

Sunday, April 29, took the NA Rowing Tigers to Columbus Ohio for competition with 25 other high school teams in the 2012 Governors Cup.  In this third event of the Spring season, the team was very competitive and successful as 13 out of 16 boats medaled in their events.

Gold Medals were won by:  Women’s Novice 4+ , Men’s Double A, Women’s Quad A, and Men’s Quad A and Men’s Quad B.  Silver Medals were won in events:  Men’s Double B, and Women’s Double A.  Bronze medals were won in events:  Women’s Novice 4+, Men’s Novice 4+, Women’s Double B , Women’s Quad B  and Men’s Quad C.

Congratulations to the NA Rowing Team and best wishes for continued success in the coming weeks as they compete at Pittsburgh Sprints (5/6), Midwest Scholastic in Cincinnati (5/12-13) and the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia (5/18-19).  Go Tigers!

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TIGERS DOMINATE THE WATERS AT LINDAMOOD CUP

It was an overcast, but comfortable day for rowing at the Lindamood Cup in Marietta, Ohio on Saturday, April 14.  This was the first time the Lindamood crews encountered North Allegheny Rowing in at least three years.  Although the venue was new to NA, the Muskingum River was quickly assessed by both the NA men’s and women’s teams on Friday afternoon when they took a short practice row.  For the most part, the race course was a straight shot and was comprised of five lanes which measured 1500 meters from start to finish.

The team awakened early on Saturday morning in order to get to the race course by the 7 AM coaches and coxswain’s meeting.  Racing began an hour later with the first event being the Women’s Lightweight Four, comprised of Lydia Schweiger, Alyssa Thomson, Adrianna Marrero and Allison Bostedo.  Taking second place in their heat, this boat qualified to race in the finals.  Unfortunately, during finals, another team in a prior event had a false start and race officials had to adjust the remainder of the finals schedule.  This created a conflict with another event and so the Women’s Lightweight Four had to be scratched.  Although disappointed, this crew received solace in  knowing that they had made the finals.

The next event was the Men’s Lightweight Varsity Four.  With Nicole Tarazona coxing and Justin Kim leading this crew as stroke, Aaron Reckless, Wyatt Weaver and Robbie Dunbar provided the horsepower.  This crew ran an admirable race, coming in fourth to some older and more experienced crews.

For the first time in their rowing careers, the Women’s Novice Eight set out to prove that they will be a force to contend with in the future.  Congratulations to Natalie Stahl, Katie Jones, Alyssa Thomson, Alex Rind, Lydia Schweiger, Sarah Heastings, MacKenzie Deller and Hadleigh Roy and coxswain, Adrianna Marrero, taking a Silver medal and coming in ahead of the third place team, Parkersburg, by a whopping sixteen seconds!

The Men’s Novice Four (Ben Christie, Jim Brandt, Mark Rad and Dylan Reffit) also left their mark in Marietta, placing second in their heat and taking a Bronze medal in the finals. Coxswain Sarah Heastings won her second medal of the day.

A most interesting race occurred in the Men’s Varsity Four when NA utilized 6’3” Eric McQuiston as the coxswain (usually around 5’4”) for the veteran crew of John Rectenwald, Nick Neugebauer, Jake Lennon and Sam Sheridan.  What was interesting about the race was that NA hauled an extra 40 pounds for the 1500 meter race, but easily coasted to first place in their qualifying heat.  Eric and his crew almost made it golden in the finals, but were relegated to Silver medal, finishing only 1.18 seconds slower than first place, St. Josephs College Prep. Although Eric was a fantastic coxswain who motivated his crew, in the end, the extra forty pounds more than likely was costly.

The victory medals continued to be awarded to North Allegheny when the Men’s Junior Varsity Four featuring Aodhan Ridenour, Derek Coleman, Kevin Fink, David Tallman and coxswain Allison Bostedo progressed to finals and won a Silver medal against St. Joseph’s Prep, who led at the finish by a bow ball and only 3.27 seconds.

The two sculling events of the day were the Men’s and Women’s Double.  Silver medalists Gillian Lawhead and Claire Barber had a very convincing victory in their event.  Sean Reardon and Eric McQuiston won Bronze medals for their strong efforts in the Men’s event.

In the Women’s Varsity Eight, the NA boat was comprised of seven Junior Varsity rowers and NA had the third fastest time in all of the heats. Unfortunately they were in a heat with the Number 1 and 2 boats and therefore did not qualify for the finals.  However, these young women (sophomores and juniors) were not to be denied were not to be denied.  Shortly afterwards, they competed in the Women’s Junior Varsity Eight event and took the Gold!  Coxswain Nicole Tarazona led the ladies to victory.  In the stroke seat was Kaitlyn Clem followed by Leah Griffin, Heather Ott, Julianna Malachin, Jackie Dallier, Alana Marin, Courtney Ferguson and Gillian Lawhead.  What a glorious reward after coming so close in the prior event.

The last event of the day was the Men’s Varsity Eight,  This boat was manned by the oarsmen from the Men’s Varsity and Junior Varsity Fours, who narrowly missed gold in their prior events.  Not to be upstaged by the Women’s Varsity Eight, the crew of John Rectenwald, Aodhan Ridenour, David Tallman, Jake Lennon, Nick Neugebauer, Kevin Fink, Eric McQuiston and Sam Sheridan with Allison Bostedo as coxswain, crushed second place Dublin Crew by almost twelve seconds to take home NAs second Gold medal of the day and seventh overall.

On to Dillon Lake Regatta.  FEAR THE ROAR!!!!

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NA ROWING KICKS OFF SEASON WITH INDOOR ERG RACE

Both North Allegheny rowing teams took first place in their respective divisions at the Indoor ERG race on Saturday.  The boys and girls teams combined for 15 individual medals, including 7 gold medals.  On the relay side, five North Allegheny teams medaled, including a pair of first place finishes.  The rowing team will be back in action on April 14 in Marietta, Ohio.

For more information on the North Allegheny Rowing Team, click http://www.narowing.org.

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Any questions or comments should be directed to Athletic Director Bob
 Bozzuto at:  bbozzuto@northallegheny.org