April 20, 2024  |  Milford, MI

The NA Tigers arrived at The Kathryn Bennett Race Course in Kensington, Michigan on Saturday, April 20th with open minds and high spirits after a tough 2 weeks knocked off the water due to Pittsburgh’s flooded rivers. The race schedule was tenuous due to cold temps, occasional snow, and mixed winds, so officials shifted to a Time Trial format for the morning and ultimately ran only A finals for JV and Varsity boats in the afternoon. 

The Tiger’s first line-up out was the Men’s Novice 8+,  they posted a time of 05:30.1 and secured 8th place. (Mandy Adduci, Nikhil Kshirsagar, Neil Pore, Phoenix Core, Max Disque, Finn Iovino, Aj Walton, Grady Stoll, Daniel Choi). Behind them on the course, NA’s 3 Mens JV 2xs came across the line with one secured place in the final (Miles Rees and Anthony Bertucci), one broken oar (Cooper Lemon and Nolan Bunn) and the B line-up posted a 5:48.00 in 10th place just out of finals (Carson Corona and Layton Wright). Rees & Bertucci went on to take 6th in the afternoon final. 

Coxswain Lauren Keyser led the Men’s JV 4+ to 9th place,  which would have given them the top spot in the B final (Christian Sperandeo, Alex Repinski, Roman Bellisario, Finn Iovino). Four of the Novice Men from the 8+ then hot seated out again in the Novice coxed 4x with Abby Berger at the helm, earning the team’s first medal of the day with a 2nd place time just 1.9 seconds behind 1st, (Nikhil Kshirsagar, Neil Pore, Grady Stoll, Max Disque). 

The women’s team took to the course at last in the Varsity 4x, Boe Sumerlin, Sawyer Wright, Alexandra Edfors, and Lorelei Schreiber rowed for the first time together this season and earned 4th place and prime lane in finals later that afternoon where they took 4th again. Right behind them on the course, the JV 4x took 3rd in time trials and finals securing the team’s second set of medals, a bronze. (Kathy Zema, Charlee Sunday, Madison Lambert, and Alex Witzel). 

Nolan Bunn was the sole 1x entry for the Tigers; he placed 15th in a deep field, just sneaking into the B final which was sadly canceled for safety concerns as winds increased again. 

In another tight hot seat, Sawyer Wright & Lorelei Schreiber,  Alex Witzel & Kathy Zema and Charlee Sunday & Madison Lambert headed out for the women’s 2xs. Battling higher winds and colder temps for this event, Wright and Schreiber placed 4th in the Varsity time trial then bested the placement and took 3rd in the final. Zema & Witzel came out on top in the JV time trial and held a strong second position for most of the final before boat turning crab had them fighting back from 5th to a 3rd place medal, closely followed by Sunday and Lambert in 4th just 1 second behind them. 

In a deep field, the Women’s JV 4+ A& B took 13th & 21st, for a B final spot and a wrap in the day for racing for both crews. (Evie Disque, Boe Sumerlin, Natalie Helfrich,  Alexandra Edfors, Maddie Rodgers) (Lauren Keyser, Emily Didonito, Ava Moore, Jocelyn Munroe, Abby Greiner)

The Tigers had 2 Mens JV quads racing in a fast field, and they came down in 5th & 6th for outside lanes later that day in finals where they matched their placements despite a fight against conditions and another crew entering the lane of the A boat. This event wrapped the day for NA. 

The Women finished 3rd in the Sculling points, the men took 7th, and the team looks forward to getting back on the water for practices this week and racing in the city championship on 4/27 at Moraine State Park. 

Posted in 2023-24 Season