Manny Flick and St. Andrews Results 2007/2008
Updated: May 19, 2008

The weekend of April 5 and April 6, Whitman participated in two regattas. The first regatta was the St. Andrew’s regatta in Middletown, Delaware on April 5. Following the regatta the crews traveled to Philadelphia to spend the night and participate in the Third Manny Flick regatta of the season on the Schuylkill river the next day (there are a total of four Manny Flick regattas held on consecutive weekends but Whitman only races in one). Unlike previous years, the weather conditions at St. Andrew’s this year were at least dry, with lots of sun and moderate temperatures. There was a strong head wind throughout the day (we had to use all of our metal stakes to prevent the Whitman tents from blowing away) which improved slightly as the racing continued. The St. Andrew’s school students even provided entertainment for spectators and crews during the regatta. There were a total of five schools that participated in the regatta: Whitman, St. Andrew’s, Bethesda Chevy Chase, West Springfield, Charminade, and Ocean City. The order of racing was as follows: freshmen, third varsity, second varsity, varsity eight and fours.

On the girls side, the second freshman eight won with a time of 6:48.6, quite a distance (28 seconds) ahead of Ocean City followed by St. Andrews. The freshman boat came in second with a time of 6:17.5, about 7 seconds back from Ocean City. The Whitman third varsity eight finished third with a time of 6:44.0 or 8 seconds back from first place St. Andrews and 7 seconds behind second place BCC. The second women’s varsity boat came in first with a time of 5:57.9 and more than 8 seconds ahead of city rival BCC. Finally, the women’s varsity shell earned third place with a time of 5:40.2 compared to first place Ocean City (5:33) and second place BCC (5:35).

On the boy’s side, the two freshman boats raced in the same race with the Whitman A boat coming in second with a time of 5:45.5, about 10 seconds back from Ocean City. The Whitman B boat finished in 6:36.2 in the race and placed sixth. The Whitman third varsity eight finished second with a time of 5:34.4 or 18 seconds back from first place Ocean City. The second men’s varsity boat came in fifth with a time of 5:18.0, just behind forth place and city rival BCC (5:15.9) and after first place Ocean City with a time of 4:56.1. Similar to the second varsity boat, the men’s varsity shell also earned fifth with a time of 5:01.5 compared to first place Ocean City (4:45.5) and behind BCC (4:52.3) for third place.

After St. Andrew’s, everyone traveling to Philadelphia that night was crossing their fingers that the weather forecast for rain would be wrong. As it turns out, the weather maps did not lie and Sunday in Philadelphia was very cold, windy and wet. Even when the monsoon like rains stopped in the morning, the afternoon continued to be cold and windy. There were instances where boats were blown in to the dock after racing. A total of 88 races were held in Philadelphia on this day and unlike other regattas, there were no semi finals or finals. The girl’s freshman eight was the first Whitman event of the day. The Whitman B boat came in fourth with a time of 6:00.92 or 34.45 seconds behind Holy Spirit, another team we will see later in the later. The Whitman A girl’s freshman boat also came in fourth with a time of 5:43.46 or 24 seconds behind Prendergast. The girl’s junior varsity boat continue its unbeaten streak and finished in a time of 5:12.6 or about 3 second ahead of second place Atlantic City (another team they would see later in the year). The women’s varsity boat was edged out by 0.06 (the size of a bow ball) and came in second with a time of 5:04.39 behind Mount St. Joseph.

On the boys’ side, the freshman eight A boat had open water on Chaminade and finished in first place with a time of 4:54.66. The Whitman B freshman boat finished a distant 40 seconds behind first place Atlantic City with a time of 5:31.14. The boy’s junior varsity eight finished in third place with a time of 4:41.1 or 4.4 seconds back from Shipley crew. Finally, the Whitman varsity boat rebounded from yesterday’s race with an awesome first place finish in the time of 4:28.09 over second place Atlantic City. Unfortunately, the boy’s novice four was disqualified although they crossed the finish line in second place. was a very strong