Pioneer Navy finishes weekend at Dad Vail Rowing Championship
Freshmen/Novice 8+ takes fifth in Grand Final

May 10, 2008
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Marietta College men’s crew closed out its trip to the Dad Vail Rowing Championship with a fifth place finish in the Grand Final of the Freshmen/Novice 8+ race and a fifth place finish in the semifinal of the Varsity 4+ event Saturday (May 10) on the Schuylkill River.

The Varsity 4+, which featured junior stroke Mitch Paskawych (Marietta), sophomore Mike Flanagan (Absecon, N.J./Holy Spirit), sophomore Andrew Hazelrigg (Orlando, Fla./Olympia), sophomore bow John Porter (Potomac, Md./Walt Whitman) and sophomore coxswain Rita McCoy (Lansdowne, Pa./Archbishop Prendergast), entered its semifinal without being tested in Friday morning’s opening heat. Things were much tougher on Saturday as the Pioneers (6:32.133) finished fifth, which prevented them from advancing to the Grand Final. Rollins (6:24.126) won the semifinal while Mercyhurst (6:26.050) took second.

The Freshmen/Novice 8+ had better success in its semifinal, as the Pioneers repeated their performance in the opening heat by finishing second again to Delaware (5:55.873). Marietta finished in 5:58.544, which enabled it to move on to the Grand Final. In that final race, titled the Lev Brett Bowl, the Pioneers took fifth with a time of 6:04.485. Delaware took the gold after crossing the line in 5:48.857. San Diego (5:50.495) placed second and Georgia Tech (05:54.454) finished third.