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Health & Fitness

Saline Hornets Rowers Kick Off Fall 2013 Rowing Season

Saline Earns Nine Medals in Grand Rapids before hosting the Inaugural Fast and Furious Ford Lake Regatta On October 5, 2013

Ford Lake, Michigan — October 5, 2013 —

Saline High School Crew kicked off its fall season last Saturday in Grand Rapids competing in the Grand Rapids Challenge Regatta. Joining rowers from 14 clubs from around the Midwest, Saline picked up where it left off last spring with another successful showing medaling in 9 of 14 events entered.  The fall season features endurance style races of 4,800 to 6,000 meters (3 – 4 miles) and this event was a perfect warm up for this year’s fall Saline High School Rowing Club.

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Saline secured first place finishes in the Mixed Varsity 8 (Michael Torssell, Oliver Mepham, Michaela Wells, Jenna Jansa, Alle Fiske, Erin Conner, Ian Marlow, Matt Eby and coxswain Victoria Wellings) and the Women’s Open 4x (Jenna Jansa, Sarah Carter, Michaela Wells, Franchesca LaChance).  Junior Liz Walsh earned a silver medal in the Women’s Varsity 1x, finishing a close second to the winning entry from Northville.  The Saline Men’s Varsity 4x (Oliver Mepham, Adam Nowicki, Michael Torssell, and Ian Marlow) and Men’s Open 4x (Ben Friman, Oliver Mepham, Graham Fox, Julian Rodriguez) also finished second in their races behind Skyline’s rowers in both events.  The Mixed Novice 8 (Lauren Lahie, Laura Penny, Ted Nowicki, Conrad Brill, Alexandra Wagner,  Matt Johnson, Evan Korver, Emma Fick and coxswain Victoria Wellings) and Women’s Varsity 4x (Sarah Buckeridge, Sarah Carter, Michaela Wells and Jenna Jansa also had a silver medal finishes. The Saline Women’s Varsity 8 (Rachael Weidmayer, Sarah Loughman, Alle Fiske, Franchesca LaChance, Haley Pfeiffer, Alexis Wolff,  Liz Walsh, Gavin Gallagher and coxswain Sarah Carter) raced to a respectable third place in its race that featured seven entries. Saline finished the day with a solid third place finish in the Men’s Varsity 2x (Travis Krause and Jacob Hargrove) in another large event with nine entries. The Grand Rapids Challenge Regatta is hosted by the Grand Rapids Rowing Club and featured high school, college/open, rec and masters rowers racing on a 4,800 meter (3 mile) course on the Grand River.

This weekend, the Saline rowers stayed home and hosted the inaugural Fast and Furious Ford Lake Regatta on Ford Lake.  Saline was joined by high school clubs from Northville, Cranbrook and Detroit Boat Club for a great day of racing on Saline’s home water and the future site of Saline’s collaborative boathouse shared with Eastern Michigan University that is now under construction.

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With rain and thunderstorms overnight, the clouds parted for the event and the racers had smooth waters and calm winds for some competitive racing on the out and back course that featured great viewing from Ford Lake Park as the boats raced out and around the island in the middle of Ford Lake.

Races started with the Novice 8+ boats and Saline Men (Evan Korver, Ben Read, Nico Hays, Matt Johnson, Conrad Brill, Phillip Cauley, Tim Burtell, Matt Burtell and coxswain Jacob Ball) and Women (Michaela Wells, Alexandra Wagner, Emma Fick, Laura Penny, Bella Callihan, Lauren Lahie, Mallory Hunter, Micki Collins and coxswain Jake Leslie) both winning third place finishes behind boats from the Detroit Boat Club and Northville.  The action really heated up in the Women’s Varsity 2x with Saline finishing in two of the top three positions led by the winning boat of Sarah Buckeridge and Sarah Loughman who won Saline’s only first place finish of the day and third place finishers Liz Walsh and Alexis Wolff.  The Saline men then earned a close 2nd place finish in the Men’s Varsity 4x (Ian Marlow, Michael Torssell, Adam Nowicki and Oliver Mepham) as well as in the Men’s Varsity 2x (Travis Krause and Jacob Hargrove).  The day finished with the last of the Saline boats also earning 2nd place finishes in the Women’s 1x (Liz Walsh) who finished closely behind the winning Northville boat and the Mixed Novice 8+ (Alexandra Wagner, Laura Penny, Emma Fick, Tim Burtell, Lauren Lahie, Evan Korver, Ted Nowicki, Conrad Brill and coxswain Jacob Ball)

The Hornets travel to Columbus Ohio this upcoming weekend to compete in the prestigious Speakmon Memorial Regatta at the Grigg’s Reservoir against 30 other clubs representing 5 states from around the Midwest.  More information can be found at www.salinecrew.org.

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