Pioneer Navy's Varsity Eight and Junior Varsity Eight advance to finals at SIRA Championship
Women's Varsity Four disqualified after winning its morning heat

Apr. 21, 2007
OAK RIDGE, Tennessee — The Marietta College men's crew accomplished its goals Saturday (Apr. 21) at the 40th annual Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Championship, as both the Varsity and Junior Varsity Eights made the finals, which will take place Sunday (Apr. 22) on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The Varsity Eight will meet Virginia, Temple, Purdue, UCLA and FIT in the finals at 11:50 a.m. The shell, which included senior Zach Stimart (McLean, Va.) at bow with sophomore Mitch Paskawych (Marietta) in seat two, senior Chase Graham (Mineral Wells, W.Va./Parkersburg South) in seat three, senior Jon Carlon (Winter Park, Fla.) in seat four, sophomore Andrew Norris (Dublin/Dublin Scioto) in seat five, senior Mike Ross (Fairport, N.Y.) in seat six, senior Eric Dowler (Washington, W.Va./Parkersburg South) in seat seven, senior Chuck Geyer (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) at stroke and sophomore Lydia Easterling (Tallmadge) at coxswain, raced twice on Saturday.

Marietta, the fifth seed, won its opening heat, beating fourth-seeded UCLA to the line by six seconds. The Pioneers finished with a time of 6:03.9, which ranked third heading into the semifinals later in the afternoon. UCLA finished in 6:09.6, while Texas (6:17.3), Dayton (6:19.1) and Michigan State (6:24.9) followed.

In one semifinal, Marietta (6:08.5) finished second behind Virginia (6:04.6), while FIT (6:11.2) was third. Temple (6:04.7) won the second semifinal with Purdue (6:07.5) and UCLA (6:08.0) also advancing to the finals.

"We had two solid races but we need to be better off the line tomorrow," said Head Coach Chris Pucella. "We are very strong during the body of the race, but if we want to be in the mix for the title, we can't fall behind early."

The Junior Varsity Eight, which features freshman Mike Cress (Ventnor, N.J./Holy Spirit) at bow, sophomore Craig Ripski (Claymont, DE/Concord) in seat two, freshman Steven Little (Seattle, Wash./Bishop Blanchet) in seat three, freshman John Porter (Potomac, Md./Walk Whitman) in seat four, freshman Kevin Wessler (Port Republic, N.J./Holy Spirit) in seat five, freshman Andrew Hazelrigg (Orlando, Fla./Olympia) in seat six, freshman Mike Flanagan (Absecan, N.J./Holy Spirit) in seat seven, sophomore Austin McIntire (Parkersburg, W. Va./South) at stroke and freshman Rita McCoy (Lansdowne, Pa./Archbishop Prendergast) at coxswain, took second behind St. Joseph (6:24.8) with and ahead of Georgia Tech (6:29.4) in its first race of the competition. Marietta finished in 6:28.1. Those three schools will join Temple (6:15.9), Virginia (6:19.1) and Jacksonville (6:22.0) in Sunday's final at 11 a.m.

Things did not go so well for the women's Varsity Four, which joined the men's team at the event. The shell, which featured sophomore Anjouli Dapice (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Catholic) at bow, junior Meg Foraker (New Lexington/Culver Academy) in seat two, Caitlin Piotrowski (Dublin/Dublin Jerome) in seat three, junior Kim Becker (Egg Harbor, N.J.) at stroke and freshman Lauren Talasnik (Mays Landing, N.J./Oakcrest) at coxswain, won its morning heat by open water only to be disqualified for not having the required 1 1/2 pound of sand in the boat needed to offset the weight of its coxswain. Therefore, despite having the sixth-fastest time (7:53.1) of all 27 competitors, the Lady Pioneers will return to Marietta not knowing how Sunday would have turned out.