A chilly wind across Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond did not hinder the Bromfield rowers from closing their fall season with a strong finish at the Massachusetts Fall State Championship Regatta last Sunday. The team brought home two golds, a silver, and a bronze in the competition with 13 other Massachusetts public schools.
The girls novice crew of Allie Bollman, Mary Egan, Kate Lee, Jillian Saydah, and coxswain Christie Devlin handily won their 2.5-kilometer women’s novice four event. This has been a great season for the junior crew. Just the day before, they rowed to a stunning victory over 25 public and private school crews from across the Northeast at the 2007 Head of the Fish regatta in Saratoga, New York. And earlier in the month, the girls won a silver medal at the Head of the Housatonic regatta in Connecticut.
From left: Allie Bollman, Jillian Saydah, Christie Devlin, Mary Egan, and Kate Lee were happy with their win at the Head of the Fish regatta in Saratoga, New York. (Courtesy photo)
Sunday was also a good day for the novice boys. Competing together for the first time as a four, Ryan Andrews, Scott Blackwell, Sam Carlson, and Sam Ginouves, with coxswain Rita Fagan, outpaced their nearest competitor by two and a half minutes in the men’s novice four.
Senior Allie Cohen fought the winds to finish second in the single skull event.
In a close race for the top spots, varsity crew Ally Cohen, Taylor Cardosi, Margaux Holley, Emma Williams, and coxswain Ellie Kendall placed third in the women’s four, just seconds behind the second-place boat. Bromfield’s second varsity boat rowed to eighth place in the field of 14.
Coming off a day of strong competition in Saratoga, the boys varsity crew, Ian Christie, Conor Finnegan, Kendall Cotton, and Scott Myslinski, with coxswain Katie Papazian, placed seventh in the men’s four.
Coxswain Rita Fagan (not shown) and rower Sam Ginouves, Sam Carlson, Ryan Andrews, and Scott Blackwell placed first in the men’s novice four event at the Massachusetts state championships. (Courtesy photo)
Although Sunday was the first time the mixed novice eight crew had a chance to row together because of the Bare Hill Pond drawdown, the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders still managed to pull their weight in the adverse winds and choppy water. As Coach Dan Justicz has repeated over the season, “The value of knowing rowing fundamentals comes out in tough conditions.”
The recent drawdown forced the team off the water for their final two weeks of practice after exposed rocks became a hazard for the boats. Coaches Pat Scott and Justicz worked to maintain the rowers’ endurance with land-based training.
Second-year Coach Scott summed up the season at the Sunday event, “I’m impressed with the growth of the team. There is also a lot of potential with the novice rowers coming along.”
