Saline Crew Has a Big day on the Detroit River

Wyandotte Boat Club hosted the 2012 Hebda Memorial Challenge Cup at BASF Riverfront Park on the Detroit River on Saturday. High school teams from Cranbrook/Kingswood, Gross Ile, Orchard Lake St Mary’s Preparatory, Northville, Theodore Roosevelt, Crestwood, Riverview, Gibraltar Carlson and Saline competed on an overcast day with temperatures in the low 40’s and a chance of flurries. Saline rowers picked up where they left off last fall season with seven top three finishes in the nine events entered.

After starting out with a third place and second place finish in heat races for the Men’s Junior Varsity 4 and Men’s Junior Varsity 8 boats respectively, the women’s Varsity 4 boat (captain Katie Stimac, Jill Borowski, Emily Buckeridge, Callie Funk and coxswain Victoria Wellings) finished a strong third place behind teams from Gross Ile and Carlson. The men’s lightweight 8 (Alex Mundorf, captain Mitch Dellot, Brad Roberts, Ryan Wellings, Jacob Hargrove, Jacob Carlson, Travis Krause, Ben Friman and coxswain Savannah Theisen) also finished in the top three again this week with a third place photo finish race between the top three boats (Riverview, Northville and Saline) who were separated by a mere 4 seconds.

Saline’s Men’s Varsity 4 boat (Matt Fosdick, captain Tommy Michaluk, Nate Pool, Graham Fox and coxswain Victoria Wellings) also had a strong race with a second place finish, seconds behind Theodore Roosevelt High School winning time of 6:09 as did the Men’s Junior Varsity 8 boat (Alex Mundorf, Ryan Wellings, Kyle Girvan, Jacob Hargrove, Brad Roberts, Graham Fox, Travis Krause, Ben Friman and coxswain Savannah Theisen) who finished second in the finals at 5:41, just 2 seconds behind Riverview and one second ahead of Gross Ile who finished third.

Saline’s Women’s Junior Varsity 4 (Gavin Gallagher, Haley Pfeiffer, Alexis Wolff, Sarah Buckeridge and coxswain Sarah Carter) made a statement with a commanding performance in their race, finishing first at 7:08, ahead of Riverview and Crestview by 30 and 60 seconds, respectively.

The Men’s Lightweight 4 (Matt Fosdick, Jacob Carlson, Nolan Dellot, Oliver Mepham and coxswain Jade Hoang) finished strongly in second place only 10 seconds behind Riverview before Saline’s Men’s Varsity 8 boat (Alex Mundorf, Mitch Dellot, Brad Roberts, Tommy Michaluk, Nate Pool, Ryan Wellings, Travis Krause, Jacob Hargrove and coxswain Savannah Theisen) closed out the regatta with a dramatic sprint to the finish, finishing just 5 seconds behind Crestwood and less than ½ second ahead of third place Theodore Roosevelt!

The Hornets head back to Wyandotte next weekend to compete for the WI HI Cup on May 5, before heading to Cincinnati for the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championships on May 12 and closing the season with the State Championships in Grand Rapids on May 19.

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