Varsity 8 Wins Christeen Steffen Memorial Cup at Met Championships

Complete Results

Orchard Beach, N.Y. - Fordham closed out the fall season on a high note at the Fall Metropolitan Championship Regatta on Sunday, November 5^th, at the Orchard Beach Lagoon. The team enjoyed competing in a shorter, 2000-meter race and many rowers were able to double up and race multiple events. The Rams were represented in each of the women's novice 8+, novice 4+, varsity 4+, and varsity 8+ categories.  Of the eight crews that raced, six brought home gold medals.
 
Highlights from the day included: 
 
Our walk-on novices competed for the first time ever in the novice 8+ event. The novice 8+ crossed the finished in a time of 8:31.9 with a commanding lead of several boat lengths of open water on the second-place crew Sacred Heart B who finished in a time of 9:17.2. 
 
Lineup (cox: Olivia Ciraulo, 8.Debra Chieco, 7.Elizabeth Berejka, 6. Kylie Elwood, 5. Emma Spoldi, 4. Isabella Knypstra, 3. Gabriella Guglielmi, 2.Danielle Moynihan, 1. Bridget Poole)
 
The women's novice 4+, composed of experienced freshmen, also dominated their event to take first place with a time of 6:49.0.  Their closest competition, Fairfield, was a full 37 seconds behind them with a time of 7:26.3.
 
Lineup (cox: Olivia Herman, 4. Heather Herbstritt, 3. Aleksa Bjornson, 2. Anna Peterson, 1. Sophie Singh)
 
Fordham had three crews entered in the varsity 4+ category.  The B boat logged the fastest time of the three Fordham crews, rowing 7:13.0.  The A and C crews finished 2nd and 3rd in their heats, respectively, with times of 7:24.1 and 8:47.5.
 
A Lineup (cox: Grace Molina, 4. Danae Ohresser-Joumard, 3. Erin Parker, 2. Cynthia Luz, 1. Caroline Roncinske).  
 
B Lineup (cox: Jackie Heffner, 4.Julia Comerford, 3. Kat Napoli, 2. Erika Selakowski, 1. Sarah White).  
 
C Lineup (cox: Madison Shyer, 4. Lindsey Register, 3. Andrea Garcia, 2. Grace Little, 1. Allison Stackhouse).
 
Fordham also had three crews entered in the varsity 8+ event, each of which took first place.  The varsity 8+s performed a clean sweep over the competition which included Iona, Fairfield, Manhattan, Sacred Heart, Albany, and Marist.  The Fordham A boat finished with a time of 6:33.0 to defeat Marist by 1.4 seconds.  By logging the fastest time of any women's varsity 8+ crew, the A boat brought home the Christeen Steffen Memorial Cup.  The B crew opened up a 10 second lead on Marist B to finish first in their heat in 7:08.3.  The C crew outperformed the rest of their heat with a time of 7:36.0, more than 33 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Fairfield C.
 
A Lineup (cox: Olivia Herman, 8. Erin McGreevey, 7. Erin Parker, 6. Danae Ohresser-Joumard, 5. Caroline Roncinske, 4. Cynthia Luz, 3. Aleksa Bjornson, 2. Anna Peterson, 1. Kat Napoli).
 
B Lineup (cox: Jackie Heffner, 8. Julia Comerford, 7. Ariene Merkle, 6. Erika Selakowski, 5. Heather Herbstritt, 4, Kristen Shuman, 3. Sarah White, 2. Sophie Singh, 1. Katie Dillon).
 
C Lineup (cox: Grace Molina, 8. Emma Lipinski, 7. Samantha Santiago , 6. Anna Grace Cole, 5. Jackie Reagan, 4. Maddy Locher, 3. Aubrey Learey, 2. Brikena Prendaj, 1. Catie Perlick).
 
Head Coach Ted Bonanno was pleased with the team's results saying "I'm very proud of my assistant coaches, Alyssa Dewey, Scott Menken, Gabrielle Oliveira, and Brandon Dorenkott for producing winning crews at all levels of our program." 
 
With the fall racing season in the books, the Rams will begin their winter training regimen in preparation for spring racing.