 "Photo: Photo Courtest Of Cherith Greenwood")
By Daniel Keenan
Staff Writer
The Loyola rowing team competed last Sunday in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship on Lake Mercer in New Jersey. Despite a novice men and women's crew, the Greyhounds displayed strong performances throughout the regatta, as the men's team ended the day third overall while the women finished fifth.
Facing off against a strong, scholarship-funded Marist team, the boats that Loyola fielded at the championship displayed the power of smaller rowing programs, despite finishing second to Marist in almost every race on the men's side.
"We fielded a squad of 38 athletes total--coxswains men and women versus our opponents' squads of 50-70 and we still showed our team to be second fastest in all but one category of the races we entered," said head coach Al Ramirez. "Our finish placings and the time differentials between Marist's winning boats, Loyola's second place boats, and the rest of the field clearly show our crews to be the second fastest team of the tournament."
The women's varsity eight, rowed by Nicole Yaeger, Kelly McDermott, Meghan Fregeau, Daisy Carter, Sheila Marsicovetere, Moriah Duval, Nina McHugh and Liz Staub, finished second to Marist in the 2,000 meter race, at 8:02.71.
"After hitting one of our best starts of the season, we were able to hold a slight lead during the first 300 meters of our race," said stroke seat and women's team captain Nicole Yaeger.
"The rest of the race remained a dogfight, but we managed a satisfying second place finish behind Marist. The distance between our two crews was much tighter than our race with them had been last week at the Knecht Cup. This crew has been vastly improving each week; we have been working hard to make this the strongest Women's varsity eight Loyola has ever seen. This was a great performance."
Devin Marsicovetere, stroke of the men's varsity eight, coxed by Genevieve Dalton, was overall pleased with the boat's performance in their event, which was also rowed by Marc Hesse, Nick Miano, Cody Kishur, Dennis Delany, Dan Reardon, Zach Reichenbach and Jack Vitanovec.
"As a boat we are stronger than we have ever been and that definitely shows in the results as we are able to put up against bigger squads, both this weekend and throughout the whole season. There is a lot of dedication here, and we are all really looking forward to the rest of the championship season," Marsicovetere said.
The women's varsity four, stroked also by captain Nicole Yaeger, tied with Fairfield for second place, with a time of 9:28.53. She was joined in the boat with Kelly McDermott, Daisy Carter, and Meghan Fregeau.
"Despite having a rough start after Manhattan crossed into our lane during the first three strokes, we were able to refocus and quickly get back into our rhythm. We used the next 2000 meters to catch up to the pack and surpass most of the other crews; finishing in second place as a tie with Fairfield. This particular crew has been especially solid this season, posting many top finishes. We have the confidence in each other to make things happen and to get it done, no matter what it takes," Yaeger said.
Up against a strong Fairfield University, Loyola's varsity light-weight four, coxed by Rachel Tarini and rowed by Mike Mikula, Jon Searls, Matt Spalluzzi, and Daniel Keenan, finished second with a time 8:13.31, beating out Marist.
However, the lack of a Novice team for Loyola cost the Greyhounds much needed points necessary to come out on top. The team was only able to field a men's novice four.
"Due to the lack of a frosh men's and women's squads, normally 12-16 athletes deep each, we were unable to race in the women's frosh eight, the women's frosh four and the men's frosh eight," Ramirez said. "These are three race categories we have won or placed second at each of the last four championships."
In the last race of the day, the men's second varsity eight, rowed by Dennis Delany, Jack Vitanovec, Maciej Owsianny, Matt Spalluzzi, Travis O'Neil, Daniel Keenan, Alex Canale and Mike Mikula, remained neck-and-neck with Marist's boat until the last few hundred meters, when Marist pulled away. Loyola finished second at 7:26.08.
"I thought the crew really came together and rowed as a unit, the 2V had one of its strongest rows this year, especially against the Marist crew who were double the size of our boat," said stroke-seat Dennis Delany.
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