Pioneer Navy closes out fall season with sweep at the Bill Braxton Memorial
Freshman/Novice, Varsity Lightweight and Varsity Heavyweight Eights all take top prize at Sunday's regatta

Nov. 13, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Marietta College men's rowing team traveled to Philadelphia, Pa., and the Schuylkill River this past weekend (Nov. 12-13) to wrap up its fall competition. The Pioneers competed in two races — the Frostbite Regatta and the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta.

The highlight of the weekend came Sunday afternoon and featured Marietta's Varsity Lightweight Eight defending its title in the Bill Braxton Cup. The shell, which consisted of coxswain Tim Rinehart, bow Dave Himes, Tom Gray, Brian Casto , Mitchell Paskawych, Zach Stimart, Jon Carlon, Eric Dowler and stroke Matt Henwood, carried the momentum from a hard fought race at the Frostbite to reclaim the Cup, which has special meaning to Marietta College. Marietta crossed the line in 4:44.28, ahead of Drexel (5:04.45), Hiawatha Island (5:06.63) and Loyola (5:13.36).

The Lightweight Eight race is the main event of the Regatta, which was founded by the Braxton family and friends to honor the memory of Bill Braxton, Jr., a popular and highly motivated lightweight rower that attended Marietta College. In 1972, the Marietta lightweight Eight, in which Braxton rowed bow seat, finished an impressive second in the Dad Vail Regatta. The following year, with Braxton rowing seven seat, the Marietta lightweight Eight went undefeated during the season and won the Dad Vail. Braxton was killed later that summer in an auto accident.

The Braxton Regatta, originally sponsored by Crescent Boat Club, moved to the Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club in the 1980s. The Braxton family and many of Bill Jr.'s friends remain involved in the regatta to this day.

"Honoring the memory of Bill Braxton, Jr. by competing in this race is something Marietta College takes very seriously," said head coach Christopher Pucella. "To win it, makes it extra special. We thank the Braxton Family for a great weekend and look forward to returning in 2006."

On Saturday, the Lightweight Eight was originally excluded from its race at the Frostbite, but following a formal protest, the decision was overturned and Marietta was awarded duplicate medals with Delaware, who was initially deemed the winner.

The Lightweight Eight may have won the featured race, but it wasn't the only Marietta boat to find success on the Schuylkill River Sunday, as both the Varsity Heavyweight Eight and Freshman/Novice Eight took first place in its event, which featured some stiff competition.

The Varsity Eight was looking to avenge a two-second loss to rival Temple just 24 hours earlier at the Frostbite. In that race Temple out sprinted a revamped Marietta shell to take the victory with a time of 6:12.33. The Pioneers, which sat from stroke Evan Tsourtsoulas, Chuck Geyer, Mike Ross, Matt Hoffer, Devin Whitney, Chase Graham, Brent Keuch, bow Andrew Norris and coxswain Devin Ohman, finished in 6:14.41.

On Sunday, Marietta once again found itself trailing Temple midway through the race, which also included St. Marys College. The Pioneers, however, fought back to sprint past the Owls, who were competing on their home course, and pull off the win by more than five seconds. Marietta finished the race in 4:50.66, while Temple came in with a time of 4:55.75.

The Freshman/Novice Eight proved to be the fastest crew in its category throughout the weekend by outracing all of the competition at both the Frostbite and the Braxton.

The boat, which included coxswain Lydia Easterling, bow Mark Hirschfeld, Braden Sanner, Tony Desimone, Craig Ripski, Jon Waldman, Andrew Norris, Austin McIntire and stroke Devin Whitney, rowed to a time of 6:53.16 at the Frostbite to defeat La Salle (7:15.87), Lafayette (7:40.91), Loyola (7:42.51) and two others.

The Pioneers continued their dominance at Sunday's Braxton by crossing the line in 5:28.53, ahead of two Ithaca boats (5:36.51 and 5:53.53), as well as Penn State (6:08.53), Temple (6:28.44) and Hiawatha Island (6:42.17).

Marietta also entered a Freshman/Novice Four into Saturday's Frostbite Regatta. The shell of stroke Braden Sanner, Jon Waldman, Samuel Burton, bow Nicholas Brown and coxswain Lydia Easterling, finished its race in fifth place with a time of 8:35.72.

"Overall, this was a great way to close out the fall season," added Pucella. "The men worked extremely hard over the last few months and will continue that dedication through the winter in hopes of achieving our ultimate goal — Dad Vail Gold — this coming spring."