The Mathews High School crew hosted the first of its two 2023 home regattas on Saturday at Williams Wharf Landing. Out of 14 events, the small Mathews team of 20 rowers took seven firsts, four second places and two third-place finishes.
High school crews attending included Gloucester, Hickory, Norfolk Academy and Rock Ridge of Loudoun County. The three-and-a-half-hour regatta enjoyed ideal conditions early for the singles and small boats and some slight increase in a head wind towards the final events. Mathews’ small crew roster has moved the team towards focusing more on sculling events with two oars per person. In sweep events, each rower uses a much longer oar with both hands. The attending crews were mostly sweep teams and none had double entries which required Mathews to race their regular doubles against four-person entries or race in sweep events which they had little or no practice in.
Highlights in the day for MHS included the women’s varsity double, Lillian Copeland and Macy Johnson winning against a Hickory varsity quad, MHS wins in both men’s and women’s varsity quads (four person sculling boats), the novice women’s four (Sydney Kollar, Lisa Zerbe, Anna West, Felicity Hartlove and coxswain Savannah Hartlove) and a second-place finish in the men’s varsity four (Ben Stroud, Ray Hudgins, Sam Tomcany, Jaxon McDonald and cox Hartlove) behind a deep (45 boys) and well-coached Norfolk Academy team.
The MHS men’s novice double with Nolan Scheirer and Sammy Hartlove hung well against four novice four entries and just missed a bronze finish to GHS “B” by 1.7 seconds, still beating fifth place GHS “A.” In the men’s varsity eight, MHS (Stroud, Hudgins, Brad Murphy, McDonald, Alex Slavkovic, Tomcany, Matt Morgan, Calvin Burton and cox Hartlove) finished second behind Norfolk Academy “A” and ahead of NA “B,” Hickory, Rock Ridge and NA “C.” For the final mixed quad race, MHS girls Kollar and West teamed up with Fenton Johnson and Murphy to take the blue ribbon over Hickory and GHS, respectively.
Mobjack Rowing and the MHS crew look forward to hosting the 32nd annual Mathews High School Regatta at Williams Wharf on Saturday, May 6. The public is welcome to come and enjoy a day of racing. Admission is $10 per car and free shuttles go to and from the parking field at regular intervals.