The Bison Men opened their spring regatta season on Saturday, March 30th at the Murphy Cup Regatta hosted by Temple University in Camden, NJ on the Cooper River. Sunny skies and above average temperatures greeted the athletes on Saturday morning, promising a great day of racing ahead.
The first event of the day was the Men’s Freshman/Novice 8+, with 7 of the 9 being novice rowers, this marked their first spring racing experience. Facing tough competition in the novice event, the Bison freshman placed 5th in their semi, narrowly missing out on advancing to the final by 1.8 seconds.
The next Bison crew on the water was the Men’s Second Varsity 8+, having a strong start along with Drexel University, the Bison 2V cruised to a 2nd place finish behind Drexel, placing them comfortably in the afternoon final.
After a quick turnaround, the novice squad contested the Men’s Novice 4+ event with 2 entries. The ‘B’ Four composed of Stroke Zachary Franz, Mike Schwartz, Mustafa Abbas, Drew Osborne and Cox Evan Rossman placed second in their heat with a time of 7:27.64 which was enough to grant them a place in the final. The next race on the course featured the ‘A’ Four of Stroke Andrew Thompson, Cameron Edwards, Nate Coffin, Doug Burney and Cox Kate Rolfes which won their heat with a time of 7:13.23 – also placing them in the afternoon final.
Shortly after the fours racing was the Bucknell Varsity 8+ composed of Cox Sr. Wade Payson-Denney, Jr. Stroke Jackson McCarron, Jr. Chris Seery, Sr. Ryan Lum, Soph. Alex Moore, Jr. Connor Corwen, Soph. Billy Tyler, Jr. Matt Sisto, and Bow Sr. Paul DeGregorio. In similar fashion to the previous 2V race, the Bison men along with Drexel University gained an early advantage and comfortably advanced to the final in 2nd place behind Drexel with a time of 6:07.14.
The first final contested by the Bison men was in the Men’s Second Varsity 8+, the Boat consisting of Cox Jr. Laura Even, Stroke Fr. Matt Koenigsberg, Fr. Sam Wiley, Soph. Tyler Whitehead, Soph. Taylor Cotter, Soph. Crawford Morris, Fr. Tommy Sadik-Khan, Sr. David Brundage and Bow Jr. Ethan Zubkoff fought hard against competition from Virginia, Drexel and UNC to finish 4th overall with a time of 6:10.51.
The next final of the day featured the two Novice 4+’s who would go on to take 2nd and 6th with times of 7:10.61 and 7:34.48, respectively. The ‘A’ entry finished 3.41 seconds off of the winners from LaSalle University.
The main event of the day was the Men’s Varsity 8+ Grand Final, with perennial rivals from Temple, North Carolina, Virginia, Drexel and Williams College, the Bucknell men were faced with a tough early-season test. With Virginia and Drexel taking 1st and 2nd, the race for 3rd was separated by only 2.3 seconds, with Temple taking 3rd in 5:57.92, Williams in 4th with a time of 5:59.54 and Bucknell finishing 5th, only 0.62 seconds behind in 6:00.22.
Coaches Monte and Waters are both pleased with the early-season form of the squad as they continue to develop and find new speed with each progressing week. The Bison men will be split in their competitions next week, with the Varsity 8+ traveling to the west coast to compete in the San Diego Crew Classic while the remainder of the team will be headed to the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia for a dual meet against Drexel University.