6/2/2003
CAMDEN, N.J. ?The Varsity Lightweight Men?s Eight captured a bronze medal at the 101st Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta on Saturday, 31 May.
The IRA Regatta is host to the lightweight men?s national championship at Cooper River Park in Camden, NJ. The bronze medal performance is the highest finish ever for Georgetown at the national championships. The previous best was a fourth place finish by the 2001 varsity crew.
Georgetown entered the spring racing season ranked ninth nationally in the pre-season poll, then climbed as high as number three entering the Eastern Sprints regatta?their rowing league championship. Following a disappointing fifth place finish at Eastern Sprints, the lightweight men then had three weeks to prepare for nationals. During that time the crew rowed with alternate line-ups while two rowers missed significant water time, one due to illness and the other due to injury.
Two days before racing began for the lightweight men at the IRA, only one of the two rowers had recovered well enough for competition. With a new rower and a revamped line-up, Coach Mike Porterfield and his crew were uncertain what to expect. Whatever uncertainty they may have had was diminished after their morning qualifier in which they placed second in their heat (top three advanced from two heats) and posted the second fastest time overall.
Georgetown started well in the grand final leading for a few strokes in the first five hundred. Racing tightened during the second five hundred as the leading crews settled into base pace, five of the six boats overlapped. Moving through the thousand-meter mark Harvard began to move steadily out on the field establishing a lead they would not relinquish. The racing continued to be tight for second through fourth places as the crews entered the last five hundred meters of the course. Columbia had now moved ahead of Georgetown and the Big Red of Cornell was contesting the Hoyas for third.
As the crews began sprinting for the finish, cheers could be heard from the Hoya faithful in the grandstands, several of those emanating from members of the 2001 crew. Harvard crossed the line first a half-length ahead of Columbia with Georgetown third about another half-length back having held off a hard charging Cornell crew by about a quarter-length. Princeton finished fifth overlapped with Cornell and Delaware crossed sixth open water back.
The 2003 bronze medallists are, from bow to stern: Blair Berbert B?05 (Wilmington, Del./Salesanium), Todd Johnson C?03 (Wilmington, Del./Brandywine), James O?Gara B?05 (Falls Church, Va./McLean), Timothy Joyce C?03 (Bedford, N.Y./Iona Preparatory), Bradford Kuntscher C?05 (Kansas City,Mo./Pembroke Hill School), Andrew Lechleiter C?04 (Indianapolis, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit), Andrew Adler F?03 (Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola), Brian MacLaughlin C?03 (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Chevrus), and coxswain Louisa Seferis F?05 (Seattle, Wash./Lakeside). Cameron Booth C?05 (Buffalo,N.Y./Nichols School) had been the varsity stroke throughout the season, but was unable to recover from a shoulder injury in time for the IRA.
Grand Final Results
5:54.9 Harvard
5:56.9 Columbia
5:58.7 Georgetown
5:59.7 Cornell
6:01.1 Princeton
6:08.9 Delaware
Complete results for the 101st IRA Regatta can be found at http://www.row2k.com/results.
