The Mathews High School crew pulled good results last Saturday at the 2022 Eastern Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association Championships Regatta. The regatta was held on a picturesque straight waterway at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. As is the case at most rowing venues, COVID restrictions forced rowing championship cancellations for the past two years. MHS crew faced competition from 13 mostlyTidewater teams with two from Richmond and one from North Carolina.
In the men’s novice four, coxswain Felicity Hartlove drove Bradley Murphy, Ray Hudgins Aleksa Slavkovicand Fenton Johnson to a 7 th place of 8 entries. In the men’s varsity four championship event cox Savannah Hartlove brought her crew of Cole Wheeler, Calvin Burton, Jaxon McDonald and Ben Stroud from 3rd in the qualifying heat to a strong gold medal finish in the final. The women’s quad final event had Macy Johnson, Lily Baucom, Scarlet Johnson and Annalise Morse take the bronze finish behind Williamsburg and Norfolk Academy with Coastal Virginia and Granby finishing out the field. Novice rower, and middle school student, Sam Tomcany competed in the Men's Senior Double against experienced high school students and was only about 35 seconds behind the winning entry and 13 seconds behind 3rd place. For the Blue Devil's final entry, Lillian Copeland and Mandy Moran won the gold in the women’s double by 43 seconds over Great Bridge with Elizabeth City coming third.
Head coach Jon Lothian was pleased with the days results, commenting “the men’s novice four is still learning and this race was good for them. The varsity team has improved over last week with a great performance out of the men’s varsity four and women’s double. The women’s quad is still finding speed and with half of them being young and less experienced, I am expecting continued improvement,” said Lothian.
MHS Crew will host five teams at its 31st annual May Regatta this Saturday at Williams Wharf. Events are from 8:30 to 1 pm. Parking is $10 per car at the parking field on Williams Wharf Road with an easy half mile walk to the Wharf.