Marietta freshmen rowers win Rivanna Romp
Pioneers defeat nine other crews at combined Head Race

Nov. 1, 2008
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Marietta College men's crew sent its freshmen to compete at the Rivanna Romp, hosted by the University of Virginia on Saturday (Nov. 1). The Pioneers' shells took first place and third place, respectively, to cruise to a team title over many of the top schools in the northeast.

The Rivanna Romp featured a unique design, as teams entered a pair of evenly matched boats. The overall times over a four-kilometer course were combined to determine the winning school.

Marietta “B” was the first boat to finish, covering the course in 13:02. Navy “B” placed second with a time of 13:08. Marietta “A” (13:13) edged Georgetown (13:14) by one second to secure third place. Navy “A” was also in the mix until it had a rower thrown from the boat after catching a crab in the final kilometer and finished a man-down in ninth place.

“In retrospect, I wish we had gone 1-2 instead of 1-3, but I knew we were in a good spot going into the race,” Assistant Coach Adam Cottrell said. “They had put down real fast times in practice last Saturday. I probably could have made one or two switches that would have balanced the boats even more, which might have had us come away with the top two spots, but they were used to the lineups so we stuck with it.”

Marietta “B” featured stroke Ethan Shoemaker (Westerville/North), Jim Furl (Marietta), Drew Schulte (Parma/St. Ignatius), Ben Charley (Pittsburgh, Pa./Winchester Thurston), Charles Jordan (Bay Shore, N.Y./St. Anthony's), Brian Timlin (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley), Sean McKenna (Blue Bell, Pa./LaSalle), bow John Chester (Petersburg, N.J./Ocean City), and coxswain Kendra Canter (Marietta).

Marietta “A” included stroke Steve Williamson (Moon Township, Pa./Central Catholic), James Smith (Atlantic City, N.J./Holy Spirit), Patrick Cleveland (New Canaan, Conn.), Henry Richard Fredericks (Seaville, N.J./Ocean City), Robert Hune-Katler (Marietta), James Inks (McDonald, Pa./Seton LaSalle), Tim Shields (Seaville, N.J./St. Augustine), bow Matthew Newsome (Petersburg, N.J./Ocean City) and coxswain Sam Ellis (West Grove, Pa./St. Mark's).

“The other boats had a lot of true novices in them, so they'll continue to get better at a rate much faster than us,” Cottrell said. “If we keep working as hard as we've been, I think we can stay ahead of the curve going into spring. I’ll be interested to see what times they put up next weekend when we boat out.”

Marietta will close out its fall season this coming weekend when the Pioneers compete in two events in Philadelphia, Pa. On Saturday (Nov. 8), Marietta will send its fleet to the Frostbite Regatta [Schedule]. Sunday (Nov. 9), the Pioneer Navy competes in the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta [Schedule].

The last regatta of the fall season on the Schuylkill, the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta 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 8+, in which Braxton rowed bow seat, finished second in the Dad Vail Regatta. The following year, with Braxton rowing seven seat, the Marietta lightweight 8+ went undefeated during the season and won the Dad Vail championship. Braxton was killed later that summer in an auto accident.