By Alexandria Sedlak (Staff Writer)

This past Saturday, the women’s rowing team competed in the Kerr Cup in Philadelphia.
The races took place on the Schuylkill River, and ended well for Fordham rowing. There were three Fordham boats entered in the regatta, a varsity 4 and two varsity 8 boats. Each boat worked hard to bring the team as far as they could.
In the end, the varsity 4 came in fifth in the finals, the second varsity 8 came in third in the finals and the first varsity 8 finished third in the grand finals.
“All our girls raced well in both the heats and finals,” coach Ted Bonanno said. “This is the second year in a row that all three varsity crews qualified for and were highly competitive in the Grand Finals.”
Fordham’s varsity 4 consisted of Dena Bussa, Brynn Fiacchi, Caroline Sneider and Catherine Napoli, with Caitlin Sershon at coxswain. The varsity 4 won its first heat with a time of 8:03.26, finishing before Marist, Temple B, Fairfield and New York University. This allowed the team to advance to the finals, where the Rams placed fifth.
The second varsity 8 came in third in the finals, just behind Drexel and Lehigh, but in front of Temple, Fairfield and Marist. This boat was rowed by Kelly Leonard, Katie Dillon, Jessica Kammen, Ari Merkle, Jessica LaJoie, Leslie Fung, Sam Cerquiera and Dena Bussa, with Caitlin Sershon at coxswain. They finished their final race with a time of 7:14.66.
The Fordham varsity 8 came in second in its first heat, with a time of 6:47.75. This placed the boat, which consisted of Ashleigh Aitchison, Ashley Hawkesworth, Fiona Murtagh, Kristen Shuman, Maura O’Donnell, Nicole Arrato, Caroline Hamann and Kerry Egan, with Jackie Ramos at coxswain, right behind Drexel and in front of Lehigh, Rochester, Fairfield and LaSalle. The Rams then moved on to the finals, where they took third with a time of 7:08.61. In this position, they were able to beat Washington College, Villanova and Lehigh, and they finished behind Drexel, who was the winner, and were less than a second behind Temple.
This was a great weekend for the Fordham women’s rowing team, which was thankfully accompanied by some gorgeous weather. They continue to grow and become a stronger team both physically and mentally.
The Rams are always practicing and finding ways to improve, and their hard work and dedication has definitely paid off.
In the words of assistant coach Katie Lane, “The team has been gaining significant speed through each performance, as seen most notably in this past weekend’s races on the Schuykill River during the Kerr Cup.”’
“The varsity 4 won their heat for the first time all season and placed 5th overall out of 16 entries. The varsity 8 and the second varsity 8 placed third in their respective events while posting some of their fastest times and results for this spring season,” Lane said.
“I’m confident that we will continue this trend of working our way through top competitors over the next two weeks before our A-10 Conference Championships.”
Fordham rowing will be taking a small hiatus from major competitions this weekend, as the next time the team will be competing is Saturday, May 2 in the 2015 A-10 Championships on the Cooper River in New Jersey.