Crew team off to fast start in season opener

In a “rivalry” match against Seton’s top Varsity 8+ the Cardinals took the lead early and opened up water with every stroke. The Cardinals finished with a time of 5:21.7 and Seton finished with a time of 5:32.7 The Ireton crew consisted of Katherine Aust, Sarah Morgan, Olivia Babiec, Catherine Burgin, Meredith Ramey, Carmen Fox, Lily Ramey, and Cecilia Baxter and coxswain Katie O’Neill. The Ireton Men’s Varsity 8+ took a lead on DeMatha Varsity 8+ early and never looked back. The boy’s finished with a time of 4:50.5, DeMatha finished with a time of 5:16.1. The Cardinals had a strong crew that included stroke seat Garrett Hulfish, 7 Patrick Walsh, 6 Ryan Dougherty, 5 Thaddeus Babiec, 4 Jacob Ramey, 3 Justin Roczniak, 2 Chris Ring, bow seat RJ Nagel, and coxswain Amanda Krauss. The Freshmen Boy’s 8+ started the day with similar success taking an early lead and edging out both DeMatha’s freshmen boats. The Ireton Frosh boat included Kevin Shoop, Carter, Chris Adelson, Stephen Barlow, Josh Martini, Nick Warner, Scott Bergstresser, Billy Colbert, and Daniel Roldan. The Ireton Men’s Varsity 4+ edged out DeMatha and was the closest race of the day. Ireton was able to take the last stroke that squeezed out DeMatha by 3 inches in the final moments that propelled them across the finish line ahead. Referee Cindy Cheng described how close and exciting the race was, “DeMatha had a couple inches on Ireton and it came down to who took the last stroke and was similar to watching Michael Phelps take the final stroke that just barely pushed him ahead right at the very end.” The crew consisted of Neil Heitbrink, Patrick Walsh, Garrett Hulfish, Jimmy Fonda and, Coxswain Amanda Krauss. Their time for 1500 meters was 5:16.1. DeMatha was so close their time was not able to be accurately recorded. The Ireton crews are looking ahead to next weekend where they compete in the Cindy Cole Cup Championship. The event hosts some of the fastest local crews in the DC Metro area including Whitman, O’Connell, Holy Cross, Blair, Walter Johnson, and Sidwell Friends. The teams will compete for the team combined championship where the team that wins the most races scores points to win the cup.