May 2, 2010

Philadelphia, Pa. - The Georgetown University freshman eight continued its winning ways in Philadelphia on Saturday. This time they broke down into two four-man shells with coxswain to face Temple's previously undefeated top freshman four.

Stroke Matt Stewart, Henry Hoffstot, Sam Viola, bow Mike Blommer and coxswain Kerri McKie won the race and were followed closely by the second four of stroke Mike Hennessy, Charles de Pentheny-O'Kelly, Tim Broughton, bow Ben Holtzmuller and coxswain Nathaniel Liu less than two seconds behind them.

The race with Temple had been close until the halfway point, but Georgetown's fours, in a race against each other, opened up multiple-length leads in the second half of the race as they challenged each other for the finish line victory.

"It's not easy to jump into fours and race after a few practices, but I think our guys handled it well and were able to defeat a strong Temple four convincingly today," noted Freshman Heavyweight Head Coach Mike Guerrieri.

In the varsity eight race Georgetown fought Temple for position in the first 500 meters, but Temple had a length lead by the halfway point of the race: stroke Paul Keith, Patrick Opdyke, Joe Ledvina, Andrew Federer, Brian Chismar, Andy Olsen, Sean Greany, bow Peter Holowesko and coxswain Carly Heitlinger went on to fall to a strong Temple crew by 6.6 seconds.

The Junior Varsity Eight boat consisting of stroke Chris Kozak, Matt Funk, Tom Skomba, Cameron Hoerner, Greg Charte, Matt Matyjek, Colin MacDougall, bow Kyle Textor, and coxswain John Geager had a steady race, but also came up short, losing to Temple's second varsity by open water.

Georgetown Crew now has two weeks to prepare for their League Championships, the Eastern Sprints, to be held in Worcester, Mass. on May 16th.