10/23/11 - Claire McConnell '05 won gold in the Women's Lightweight Four at the Head of the Charles Regatta this past weekend with her club team, Vesper Boat Club out of Philadelphia. The Head of the Charles is the world's largest two-day rowing event, with over 8,000 competitors in 55 different events. Claire was a four-year rower at Blair and Dartmouth College and has been training out of Philadelphia and attending graduate school at UPenn since her college days. Official results of the entire regatta can be found at www.row2k.com/hocr/.
Pictured above are Claire (second from left) and her teammates on the winners podium. Click photo to view larger.
Blair
Alumnus, John Redos ’09, represents United
States at World Rowing
Under 23 Championships
John
Redos ’09 (Cornell University
Class of 2013) earned a spot on the United States
U-23 National Team and represented the USA at the
World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Brest, Belarus,
July 22-25. John’s boat finished in 12th place
overall on July 25 in the lightweight men’s
quadruple sculls competition. His crew finished sixth
in the B final for the 12th overall finish. The crew
clocked a 6:38.14 to finish 7.69 seconds off the
pace. Denmark won the race in 6:30.45.
Earlier this summer (fresh off
a great season at Cornell), John won the Freshman Lightweight
8 at the Eastern Sprints, and continued his on-water
success at Mercer Lake, in Princeton, N.J., on June 25.
Redos and three teammates from the Vesper Boat Club in
Philadelphia won the Men’s Lightweight 4x at the
National Team qualifier in dominant fashion. John’s
family and three of his Blair teachers were there to
support him. Last summer he became the 2009 USCA K1 Touring
Kayaking National Champion.
2010 - Boys’ Junior
Four Wins Gold at Stotesbury!
Blair
rowing won its second gold in three years at the Stotesbury
Regatta in Philadelphia. Held on the famous Schuylkill River,
the Stotesbury Regatta is the largest, most competitive high
school rowing event in the country. This year, the junior four
boat of Robert Kimmelman (coxswain), Troy Dundas (stroke),
Eric Timken, Evan Redos and Henry Foote brought home the gold
for coach Camden Place and the team. Two years ago, Blair senior
boys four won the School's first gold medal at Stotesbury. Click
to view more photos.
2010 - Blair Alumna
Helps Capture Win for Georgetown
The Georgetown University women’s
rowing team captured three silver medals and a bronze medal
to finish in second place at the BIG EAST Rowing Championships
on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., in early May. In
the finals of the women’s novice eight race, the Hoyas
boat of coxswain Lindsay Weil ’09, stroke Lauren Abrams,
Erin Fenton, Alex Guyton, Marissa Morgan, Katherine Bruce,
Molly McShea, Ani Zotti and bow Brennen O’Rourke finished
third behind Notre Dame and UConn in 7:53.835. The second-place
finish is the Hoyas best placement during head coach Glenn
Putyrae’s tenure on the Hilltop.
2010 - Blair Alumnus
Represents Angola
André Matias ’07 (Hamilton
College Class of 2011) will represent the Republic of Angola
in two international rowing competitions in the summer of 2010.
Matias has participated in the lightweight single sculls category
at the Pan-African Games (2007) and the Under-23 World Rowing
Championships (2009), where he placed 27th. He will continue
his career under the coaching of Eric Summers, current coach
of the Hamilton crew team. Matias and Summers will be training
out of the Syracuse boathouse and partaking in U.S. regattas
in preparation for the summer racing. Matias will represent
Angola at the African Rowing Championships in Tunisia (June
3-6, 2010) under the lightweight single. Two fellow Angolan
athletes will also be racing the lightweight double sculls.
Following that, he will attend a training camp with the Peruvian
team in France, where he will be training at high altitude.
His final representation will be at the 2010 Under-23 World
Rowing Championships in Brest, Belarus, from July 22 to 25,
2010. Matias will be considered for Olympic qualification at
the Pan-African games next year in Mozambique in the Lightweight
men’s double sculls.
April 2010 - Blair Families Give Two
Crew Shells Christening Celebrated After Peddie Meet
On
April 10, following an afternoon of home races against arch-rival
Peddie, Blair’s boys’ and girls’ crew teams,
parents and School representatives gathered on the shore of
Swartswood Lake to christen two new shells. The Southern
Cross, a girls’ four shell, was given by Scott and
Alison Tatham, parents of Jessica ’11,
a varsity rower for Blair. The other new boat, The Pale Horse – a
boys’ four shell – is a gift of Blair Trustee Stacey
McConnell and her husband, Chris, parents of four Blair rowers, Claire ’05, Craig ’07, Graham ’10 and Jane ’12.
Claire and Craig have continued their rowing careers at Dartmouth
College.
Over 60 novice and varsity athletes participate in Blair’s crew program,
led by head coaches Camden Place and Stephanie Guilmet and assistant coaches
Maril Davenport and Amy Van Nostrand. “Blair’s rowers are hard-working
and determined, but they have fun, too,” remarked Headmaster Chan Hardwick
after pouring water from the finishing line and breaking bottles of champagne
over the bows of the new shells. “We are grateful to the Tathams and
the McConnells for their support of a wonderful program that emphasizes teamwork
and dedication.”
Click on images to view larger.
2008 - Blair Brings
Back Gold from Stotesbury!
The Blair rowing team traveled to Philadelphia
for the annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta on May 16 - 17, an event
which boasts nearly 6,000 high school competitors from around
the country. Head boys’ coach Bowen Posner provided the
following report:
In the midst of Friday’s torrential downpour, Blair qualified each boys’ nd
girls’ crew for its respective semi-final events. The sun finally appeared
on Saturday morning, but the Blair crews faced challenging racing conditions
given a raging tail current and a stiff, gusty headwind. Nonetheless, the girls’ junior
four aggressively attacked Blair’s first final of the day, and, despite
falling to 6th place early in the race, the Lady Bucs (Haley Anderson ’10, Sarah
Clark ’09, Kara Stessl ’09, Becca Merrifield ’10 and Lindsay
Weil ’09) rowed a gutsy race en route to a silver medal finish.
Later that afternoon, the boys’ senior four entered its afternoon final
as the top seeded crew as a result of decisive wins in its time trial and semi-final.
The crew (Matt Gallira ’08, John Redos ’09, Elliott
Anderson ’08, Stephen Patane ’09, and JP
Bowditch ’08) jumped to an early lead and remained calm despite
being battered by choppy water and high winds. As the crew crossed the final
500 meter mark, it began a decisive sprint and won Blair’s first-ever
Stotesbury gold by clear water.
Immediately following the boys’ final, the girls’ senior four (Beth
Martens ’08, Tal Thurgood ’08, Olivia
Trozze ’08, Sam Tilney ’08, and Michaela
McCrink ’08) sped down the Schuylkill River race course while
challenging the defending national champion, Peddie School. The girls made
a valiant effort and earned a bronze medal as a result, Blair Crew’s
first medal in the girls’ senior four category. In a very special moment
for the team, the senior boys’ and girls’ fours found themselves
on the awards dock together in order to receive their well-deserved medals.
Congratulations to Blair Crew for its most successful season!
Stroke and sole senior Matt
Gallira ’08 said, “It was wild in
the middle of the race. The headwind got really strong,
and it was pretty tough, so at the end we had to do a
40-stroke sprint to win it. It’s our first gold
ever, and it’s great with the girls medaling too.”
Click
here to view more event photos, and enjoy some short
video below.
2008 - Blair Crew Retains MAPL Titles
Boys’ head coach Bowen Posner reports
the following Blair victories: “Blair crew traveled to
Mercer Lake in Princeton on April 26 to defend the School’s
boys’ and girls’ MAPL crew titles. The boats battled
tough crews from Peddie, Hun, and Lawrenceville as well as
fierce water conditions. Highlights of the day included a dominant
performance by the boys 4th boat, who bested their nearest
opponent by 10 seconds, and thrillingly decisive results from
the girls 2nd and 3rd crews as they cruised to victory by a
combined total of 33 seconds. With strong performances from
the girls’ novice 8 and the boys’ and girls’ first
crews (3rd, 1st, and 3rd, respectively), Blair repeated its
performance from last year by retaining the MAPL titles in
2008. Well rowed, all crews!
2007
- Success at Stotesbury!
Blair Crew garnered great success at
this year’s annual Stotesbury Regatta. Confident after
an impressive performance in ’06, the crew was eager
to leave its mark on the national stage. The day began with
grand final appearances in the girls’ junior four, girls’ lightweight
four, and boys’ lightweight eight. All crews fought incredibly
hard and came very close to the medal stand. In the last two
finals of the day for Blair, the boys’ junior and senior
fours placed second and third, respectively. These medals,
the first two in boys’ crew history, capped an impressive
season on the water. Congratulations to all crews and great
racing!
Two Boys to Attend Junior National Team Selection Camp
At the conclusion of the MAPL regatta, USRowing – a non-profit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the U.S. – invited Matt Gallira ’08 and JP Bowditch ’08 to attend Junior National Team Selection Camps this summer. JP is a coxswain and Matt a rower in the first boys’ varsity boat. At the end of the selection camp, 12 rowers and 2 coxswains will be selected to train and compete in China . Coach Blodgett explained, “Only the very top athletes in the country get invited to the selection camp to compete for the few spots open to the junior national team. It is very competitive and difficult to make, but is a great honor to be invited to that camp. Both J.P. and Matt are definitely two of the best in the country, and we are very proud that they will be representing Blair and hopefully our country as well.”
Blair reigned victorious in the first-ever MAPL regatta on April 28. Boys’ crew coach Seth Blodgett said, “We are very proud to have won both the girls’ and boys’ trophy in the inaugural year of the event. We won five out of the six races that counted for points towards the championship.” Stephanie Guilmet, head girls’ crew coach, added, “It was definitely a team effort this weekend, with every rower making a contribution to the victory. Special congratulations to the girls’ second and third fours for very tight victories, both winning by less than two seconds to solidify the win.”
Stephanie Guilmet, head girls’crew coach, reports on a highly successful outcome at the Mercer Sprints on April 21, 2007: “We were by far the most successful team at this large regatta, with about 25 schools participating.”
Boys 1st 4: 1st and 3rd Girls 1st 4: 4th place
Boys 2nd 4: 1st place Girls 2nd 4: 1st place
Boys Lwt 4: 3rd place Girls 3rd 4: 1st place
Boys Lwt 8: 1st place Girls Lwt 4: 1st place
Boys Novice 8: 1st and 5th Girls Novice 8: 2nd place
Fall 2006 Peddie
Day – A New Tradition?
Given the cancellation of the Head of Schulykill Regatta due to bad weather, Blair Crew was eager to test itself against Peddie during its first, and only, race of the fall season. Blessed with beautifully calm conditions and warm temperatures, the crews hit the water for a 2500 meter head-style race on Lake Swartswood . The boys provided a very exciting race, as Peddie A placed first, while Blair A finished just a second off the winning pace. Peddie B rounded out the top three, only one-second behind Blair A. Blair B and Peddie C raced for the fourth position, with Blair ultimately prevailing. In the girls’ race, Peddie’s A and B crews rowed impressively and earned the top two finishes. Blair’s top girls’ boat rowed its fastest piece of the season on its way to third place. Peddie C finished behind Blair for fourth place.
Thank you, Peddie, for great racing and wonderful sportsmanship! Also, we were grateful for the support of Blair students, faculty, and families. Your presence at the race course meant a great deal to the competitors and coaches. We will see everyone again this spring!
Results: Peddie @ Lake Swartswood
November 11, 2006
Introduction
