The Bison made their return to Philadelphia last weekend at the Kerr Cup. Conditions on the Schuylkill River were great for racing, with temperatures in the high 60’s, a slight headwind, and passing clouds. The Kerr Cup hosted a wide variety of teams. In addition to normal rivals Drexel, Michigan, and Delaware, Bucknell would get to race some unfamiliar faces, west coast programs UC San Diego and Gonzaga.
The varsity eight drew a tough morning heat, against #2 ranked Michigan and #4 ranked Army. Both programs proved to be too much for the Bison, who would place 3rd in their heat to move onto the petite final. The Bison would row to a 5 second victory in the petite final over Colgate, finishing in a time of 6:14. The 1v was rowed by Nick Barpoulis ’17, Dillon LaFata ‘18, Billy Pinamont ’17, Ryan McSherry ’19, John Leasure ’19, Tom Lanphier ’20, Andrew Stonnington ’19, Sam Jubb ’19, and was coxed by Cami Berlin ’19.
The second varsity eight would finish 4th in their morning heat, behind Drexel, UC San Diego, and Michigan. Despite finishing in the 6th fastest time of the morning heats, the 2v would row in the petite final that afternoon. The Bison would win the petite final by 13 seconds over 2nd place Army to finish in the time of 6:31.2 The 2v was rowed by Thomas Marth ’19, Pat Long, James Koenigsberg ’18, Mike Pallotta ’18, David Dayya ‘20, Christian Daugherty ’18, Lucas Colagrossi ’17, Duncan Ragland ‘19, and was coxed by Perry Hamilton ’18.
The third varsity eight would only get one race on the day, a straight final. A slow start saw the Bison a length down on the field early, but the Bison held onto the stern of Michigan. The lead three crews from Drexel, St. Joes, and Delaware would pull away, but the Bison would walk through Michigan to finish in 4th place with a time of 6:44. The 3v was rowed by Gunnar Vorwerk ’19, Matt LaRouche ’20, John Robertshaw ’20, Alex Seel ‘20, Matt Brown ’20, Alex Herman ’20, Gary Tse ’19, Mike Birosak ’19, and was coxed by Nicole Finan ’17.
The varsity four would finish 5th in their heat just behind 4th place Loyola, but unfortunately there was no C or B finals for the fours. The Varsity four was rowed by Caleb Choi ’20, Ryan Wang ’19, Solomon Wise ’20, Sam Jacob ’20, and was coxed by Henry Leonardi ’18.
The freshmen four qualified out of the morning heat for the grand final with a 2nd place finish behind Michigan. In the final the Bison would finish in 5th, just behind Colgate and one second ahead of Drexel. The freshmen four was rowed by Phil Thompson ’20, Matt McLaughlin ’20, David Sullivan ’20, Matt Gorloff ’20, and was coxed by Zack Schiffer ’20.
The Bison will compete next Saturday, April 22nd against Penn State, Army, and UMass at Bald Eagle State Park in Howard, PA. We hope to see many friends and family there!