5-05-2013 11:38pm

Hornets Row to 5 First Place Finishes at Wy-Hi

After winning its first ever team point’s trophy at the 49th Annual Hebda Memorial Cup Regatta last weekend, Saline High School rowers picked up where they left off on Saturday at the 2013 Wy-Hi Regatta. Hosted by the Wyandotte Boat Club at the club’s facilities at BASF Waterfront Park on the Detroit River, Saline High School rowers joined high school rowers from Carlson, Riverview, Cranbrook, Roosevelt, Crestwood, Grosse Ile, Southgate Anderson, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central, Forest Central Eastern, Forest Hills Northern, Marietta, Lowell and Northview for some fast racing on the 1500 meter course.

The regatta consisted of 21 qualifying heat races and 24 final races, pitting some of the areas fastest rowers against each other on the Detroit River course south of downtown Detroit. A steady cross wind created some challenging conditions, especially for the new rowers that had to stay focused and follow their coxswain’s directions closely to avoid the rocks along the sides of the course.

Saline rowers cruised through the heat races, qualifying 11 of 13 boats for the finals and again made a strong showing his weekend with top three finishes in all events entered, including five first place finishes. The Saline Women’s Novice 8 (Sarah Loughman, Allie Fisk, Franchesca LacChance, Jenna Jansa, Rachel Weidmayer, Michaela Wells, Ellie Parker, Jade Hoang and coxswain Sarah Carter) opened the finals for Saline with a second place finish, just 2 seconds behind the winning boat from Marietta. The Men’s Lightweight 8 (Ben Friman, Graham Fox, Matt Eby, Ian Marlow, Oliver Mepham, Nolan Dellot, Julian Rodriguez, Andrew Bonczyk and coxswain Savannah Theisen), Women’s Novice 4 (Franchesca LacChance, Allie Fisk, Michaela Wells, Ellie Parker and coxswain Brian Peterson), Women’s Varsity Double (Liz Walsh and Alexis Wolff) and Men’s Varsity 8 (Sean Hutfles, Alex Mundorf, Brad Roberts, Jacob Hargrove, Mike Pettit, Travis Krause, Ryan Wellings, Julian Rodriguez and coxswain Victoria Wellings) also finished strongly on Saturday with close second place finishes. The Men’s Varsity 4 (Brad Roberts, Jeremy Korver, Mike Pettit and coxswain Savannah Theisen) followed that up with a third place in their final.

Saline’s first top place finish of the day was by Saline’s Women’s Varsity Quad (Gavin Gallagher, Haley Pfeiffer, Sarah Carter and Sarah Buckeridge) finishing first for the second week in a row. Also finishing in first place in the finals for Saline were the Men’s Varsity Double (Jacob Hargrove and Ryan Wellings), Men’s Varsity Quad (Nolan Dellot, Mike Torssell, Andrew Bonczyk and Oliver Mepham), Women’s Junior Varsity 8 (Alexis Wolff, Liz Walsh, Gavin Gallagher, Haley Pfeiffer, Sarah Loughman, Jenna Jansa, Rachel Weidmayer, Sarah Buckeridge and coxswain Sarah Carter) and Men’s Lightweight 4 (Sean Hutfles, Travis Krause, Ben Friman, Graham Fox and coxswain Jade Hoang).

Saline next travels to the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championships in Nashport, Ohio on May 10-12, 2013 with high hopes of qualifying boats for national championships in New Jersey before closing out its regular season at the Michigan High School Championship Regatta in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 18, 2013.

More information can be found at www.salinecrew.org.