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Stotesbury Results 2007/2008
Updated: May 19, 2008
The Stotesbury Cup regatta held on May 16 and May 17 on the Schuylkill river in Philadelphia represented the culmination of the spring racing season for most Whitman crews. The crews left Whitman after noon on Thursday with nice sunny spring weather. However, as forecasted (a rare occasion), wet weather started to move into the Philadelphia area Thursday afternoon and soaked the Philadelphia area all of Friday. The regatta, in its 82nd year, is billed as the world’s oldest and largest high school rowing competition. Almost 5,000 rowers representing teams from 180 schools from across the United States and Canada traveled to Philadelphia to compete in 28 championship races which were held on Saturday. Whitman took six crews to Philadelphia and all six advanced through to the semi-finals, a first for Whitman.
The Stotesbury Cup regatta is the standard 1,500 meter course but what makes the race unique is the head-style time trial that takes places for all events. Crews assigned an odd number race in one lane and crews with an even number race in another lane with a 15 second difference between boats and 30 second difference between boats in the same lane. Qualifying time trials started on Friday morning with semi finals set for late Friday morning and early Saturday afternoon. The finals for all events started Saturday afternoon.
The freshman boy’s eight event was the first of the regatta with Whitman finishing in 11th place out of 42 total boats at a recorded time of 5:00.06, or about 15 seconds out of first place and qualified for the semi finals. The freshman girl’s eight placed 9th out of a total of 37 boats with a time of 4:56.32 (8.5 seconds out of first place) and also qualified for the semi finals. The boy’s junior eight raced to the finish line in 7th.place out of 42 boats for a total time of 4:45.80 or 16.4 seconds out of first, and not to sound repetitive also qualified for the semi finals. Whereas, the girl’s second eight finished in eighth place out of 21 boats for a total time of 5:16.05 and proceeded to the semi. The girl’s varsity eight finished 15th. in a time of 5:03.29 out of 37 boats. Finally, the boy’s varsity eight finished right behind the place of the varsity girls in 16th (out of 39 boats) with a time of 4:26.15, 16 seconds out of first and also qualified for tomorrow’s semi finals.
In order to advance to the finals, boats had to finish in the top two or three places of their respective semi final race, depending on the number of entries. In the first semi-final event Friday for Whitman, the boy’s freshman boat came in fourth place with a time of 4:47.25, more than 15 seconds behind first place Dallas Jesuit. The girl’s freshman boat had the best showing of the day of all Whitman crews and came in second place with a time of 5:05:54 or about 2 seconds back of Mount St. Joseph. As a result of this place, the girl’s freshman boat qualified for the finals on Saturday.
The rain stopped and the weather on Saturday was ideal for racing. The boy’s junior eight was the first Whitman event of the day and the crew placed third, only .25 seconds back from second place Thomas Jefferson for spot in the finals. St. Josephs Prep finished first in the semi final race with a time of 4:28.82 or 15 seconds faster than Whitman. The girl’s second eight finished fifth with a time of 5:26.57 behind first place Thomas Jefferson with a time of 5:11.01 and behind crews they had previously beaten in the spring. The boy’s senior eight had tough competition and finished in sixth place 16.16 seconds back from first place Holy Spirit . The outcome of the girl’s senior eight was similar to that of the boys with a finish time of 5:31.59, or 26 seconds out of first place Holy Spirit (it seems like we have seen that name before). The girl’s freshman boat ended Whitman's racing for the day with a fourth place finish in a time of 5:48.6, just out of medal contention from the Radnor first place crew with a time of 5:38.2.
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