The Bucknell men finished off their fall racing season this past weekend with the Rutgers Fall Classic on Saturday and a race at Penn State on Sunday. The Rutgers Fall Classic has become a staple in the teams fall racing calendar, and is an event that focuses more on the speed of the team, rather than just a certain boat. The format for the Rutgers Fall Classic has teams put their top 16 freshman rowers in two even boats, and the total time of those two boats is the finishing time for the school. Bucknell entered three freshman 8’s at Rutgers, which was also the first time the class of 2021 competed together this fall.
Conditions were ideal for a November race, with highs in the low 60’s and sunny skies. The Rutgers race always puts the Bucknell freshman up against some very talented competition, and this year was no different. The Navy heavyweight and lightweight freshman showed up again, along with Dad Vail and ACRA schools Delaware and Rutgers. This was the first time for the class of 2021 to try and show their speed, and with 21 out of 27 freshman being novices, they showed strong results against some heavily recruited programs in Navy and Delaware. In the team competition Bucknell finished 4th, ahead of Rutgers and behind the Navy lightweights, Navy heavyweights, and Delaware. The three Bucknell freshman crews finished 9th, 11th, and 15th. Here were the lineups for these crews:
Bucknell A – Coxswain Brody Mistrot, Bobby Subak, Alex Rabinovich, Liam Pearce, Ryan Galli, Taylor LaRosa, William Perry, Charlie Espy, and Rylan Forester
Bucknell B – Coxswain Lourenco Martins, Cooper Giesen, George Willis, Liam Gibbons, Greg Galczynski, Nick Bermeo, Beau Detchmendy, Jackson Ingram, and Liam Oakley
Bucknell C – Coxswain Kip Hallagan, Nick Bindela, Will Costa, Will Stephens, Nathan Sisack, Conor Fedor, Chris Mangano, Sebastian Bickford, and Josh Blume
Then on Sunday the full team competed at a new fall event on Bald Eagle State Park against Penn State and LaSalle. This was a non-traditional fall race, which covered the normal 2000 meter spring racing distance. It gave the upperclassmen a chance to race in small boats, the freshman a feel for the spring racing distance, and allowed almost the entire team to race twice.
The first event of the day was the men’s pair, which saw Bucknell enter six different pairs and race against Penn State. The team started the day strong finishing 1st-6th in the pair event.
Up next was the freshman 8 race, where we knew we would be challenged by a strong recruiting class from LaSalle. LaSalle had medalled in the freshman 8 at the Head of the Schuylkill earlier in the fall, beating perennial Dad Vail powerhouse Temple. Our freshman crews were not nearly as strong as the LaSalle crews off the start, and the race quickly saw two LaSalle 8’s in the lead with three Bucknell 8’s trailing with Penn State. The Bucknell crews began to show what they are capable of through the middle of the race, closing the gap significantly, and seeing the Bucknell A crew move past one of the LaSalle boats, but that was as far as they could go, and the finish order was LaSalle A, Bucknell A, LaSalle B, Bucknell B, Bucknell C, and Penn State.
The next race of the day, the Varsity 4, was probably the most exciting. Bucknell entered two crews made up of rowers mostly from the 2nd and 3rd varsity 8’s. Both Bucknell boats got off the line ok, and quickly found themselves in a battle with LaSalle. For most of the race the Bucknell B crew seemed to be the stronger of the two Bucknell boats, and started to slowly cut into the length lead that LaSalle had created. The Bucknell A crew was not ready to be ruled out of this race though, and they started to claw into Bucknell B and LaSalle. From the start there was never open water separating these three crews, until with about 250 meters to go, with all crews dead level, the LaSalle three seat caught a boat stopping crab. Now it was just a race to the line between the two Bucknell crews which saw the A boat edge out the B boat by 1.6 seconds.
The men’s novice 4 was equally exciting for the Bucknell A entry against LaSalle, only this time the race was for 2nd and 3rd with the LaSalle A crew taking control of the race early on. The two Bucknell entries in this event were made up of rowers from the 2nd and 3rd freshman 8’s that raced earlier in the day. The Bucknell A crew raced evenly with the LaSalle B crew, again with the race being decided in the last few hundred meters. This time LaSalle edged out Bucknell by 0.5 seconds. The Bucknell B crew finished 5th.
The last race of the day, and for the fall was the varsity 8 event. To get as many people two races as possible, Bucknell entered four varsity 8’s, with the C boat being the same crew that finished 2nd in the freshman 8 event. LaSalle entered two boats and Penn State one, to make the final event a full 7 boat race. All four Bucknell boats showed strong performances with their last race of the day. The Bucknell varsity 8 gained control early in the race, and with about 500 meters in they had broken open water on the field. The Bucknell 2nd varsity 8 put up a good fight against the LaSalle varsity crew. The freshman crew (C) was again very slow off of the line at the start, but again clawed their way back towards the Bucknell 2v and LaSalle varsity 8. The Bucknell D entry tried to race with the Penn State varsity 8, but wasn’t able to match their speed for the full 2000 meters, finishing in 6th place ahead of the LaSalle B entry.
Sunday was a fun event for the team, and completed a long weekend of racing. The team will not head indoors for the winter where they will look to build off of the fall season. A group will get back on the water in January in Orlando, and start gearing up for the spring season.
Full Rutgers Results
Full Penn State/LaSalle Results
Penn State/LaSalle Lineups
Men’s Pair
1. Bucknell A – Andrew Stonnington ’19, Duncan Ragland ’19
2. Bucknell C – Mike Pallotta ’18, Ryan McSherry ’19
3. Bucknell E – Matt Brown ’20, Matt LaRouche ’20
4. Bucknell B – Pat Long ’18, James Koenigsberg ’18
5. Bucknell D – John Leasure ’19, Thomas Marth ’19
6. Bucknell F – Phil Thompson ’20, Mike Birosak ’18
Men’s Novice 8
2. Bucknell A – Coxswain Lourenco Martins, Bobby Subak, George Willis, Taylor LaRosa, Ryan Galli, Liam Gibbons, Nick Bermeo, Liam Pearce, Liam Oakley
4. Bucknell B – Coxswain Brody Mistrot, Cooper Giesen, Alex Rabinovich, Charlie Espy, Greg Galczynski, Jackson Ingram, William Perry, Will Costa, Rylan Forester
5. Bucknell C – Coxswain Kip Hallagan, Nick Bindela, Beau Detchemendy, Will Stephens, Nathan Sisack, Conor Fedor, Chris Mangano, Sebastian Bickford, Josh Blume
Men’s Varsity 4
1. Bucknell A – Coxswain Cami Berlin ’19, Christian Daugherty ’18, Tom Lanphier ’20, Gunnar Vorwerk ’19, and Alex Seel ’20
2. Bucknell B – Coxswain Perry Hamilton ’18, Mike Birosak ’18, Alex Herman ’20, Ryan Wang ’19, and Sam Jacob ’20
Men’s Novice 4
3. Bucknell A – Coxswain Aibhlin Moye-Linehan, Cooper Giesen, Alex Rabinovich, Charlie Espy, Rylan Forester
5. Bucknell B – Coxswain Brody Mistrot, Nick Bindela, Nathan Sisack, Will Stephens, Chris Mangano
Men’s Varsity 8
1. Bucknell A – Coxswain Cami Berlin ’19, Thomas Marth ’19, John Leasure ’19, Andrew Stonnington ’19, Alex Seel ’20, Mike Pallotta ’18, Alex Herman ’20, Pat Long ’18, and Ryan McSherry ’19
3. Bucknell B – Coxswain Perry Hamilton ’18, Gunnar Vorwerk ’19, James Koenigsberg ’18, Ryan Wang ’19, Duncan Ragland ’19, Christian Daugherty ’18, Tom Lanphier ’20, Phil Thompson ’20, and Matt LaRouche ’20
4. Bucknell C – Coxswain Aibhlin Moye-Linehan ’18, Bobby Subak ’21, George Willis ’21, Taylor LaRosa ’21, Ryan Galli ’21, Liam Gibbons ’21, Nick Bermeo ’21, Liam Pearce ’21, and Liam Oakley ’21
6. Bucknell D – Coxswain Lourenco Martins ’21, Mike Birosak ’18, Matt Brown ’20, Sam Jacob ’20, Jackson Ingram ’21, Greg Galczynski ’21, Beau Detchemendy ’21, William Perry ’21, and Will Costa ’21