Both Fordham University’s men’s club crew team and women’s Division I rowing team went out this past weekend to wrap up the fall portion of the 2024-25 season. The men’s team traveled out to Princeton, New Jersey, to compete in the Princeton 3-Mile Chase hosted by Princeton University. The women’s team traveled out to Shelton, Connecticut, to compete in the Heart of the Housatonic, the annual regatta hosted by Sacred Heart University. Both teams were coming into these competitions off of strong showings in the Head of the Schuylkill regatta in Philadelphia the previous weekend.
On Saturday afternoon in Shelton, the women were up against Fairfield University, the University of Connecticut, College of the Holy Cross, Marist College, Monmouth University, Bryant University and Sacred Heart University. The Rams entered three boats in the women’s Varsity 8+. Fordham’s second and third boats finished in 12th and 17th out of 21 boats, with times of 18:44 and 19:25, respectively. Fordham’s first boat in the race received a DNS and subsequently did not have a finishing time. However, the Rams put out strong performances in their next two races. The Rams finished fourth out of six boats in the women’s Novice 8+ with a time of 22:07, beating out both boats from Marist. Last but certainly not least, the Rams clinched the bronze medal in the women’s Varsity 4+, finishing in third with a time of 18:52.4. That squad included senior coxswain Charlotte Maravelis, senior Anna Hinck, and juniors Eliza Collins, Bailey Scherdorf and Kamryn Carter. The other three Fordham boats in the women’s Varsity 4+ finished in 12th, 18th and 19th out of 20 boats with times of 20:03.3, 21:09.0 and 21:20.6, respectively. The Rams hope to carry the energy from their strong showing on the Housatonic into the spring portion of their season.
On Sunday morning in Princeton, the men’s crew team competed in two eights, the initial men’s heavyweight eights and then the second round open weight men’s eights. The Rams had their work cut out for them, competing against high-caliber opponents including the likes of Princeton, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). In their first race, they finished 37th out of 41 boats with a time of 14:31.68. They managed to turn it around with a slightly stronger performance in the second round, coming in 17th out of 23 boats with a time of 14:25.86, beating out squads from the University of Wisconsin, UPenn and Princeton. Senior coxswain Emma Barson, seniors Adin Deljanin, Sebastian Gwitt, Alberto Pennace, Alex Shotmeyer and Nate Sewiec, and first-years Thomas Martino and Kevin Chase all competed in both races, with junior Michael Ryan filling the last seat in the first race and first-year Johnny Gu taking his place in the second race. “We had to prove ourselves in previous regattas this fall in order to earn a spot to compete at this level,” said Barson, discussing the team’s performance. “Given the teams we were up against, we stayed competitive.”
