October 24 , 2005

BOSTON—The Hobart College varsity four finished 12th out of 26 boats in the championship fours event this past weekend at the annual Head of the Charles, while the varsity eight finished 26th out of 41 boats. Despite difficult weather conditions, the varsity four crossed the finish line with a time of 17:47.51, while the varsity eight registered a time of 16:53.75.

Hobart's varsity eight makes the turn at Eliot Bridge. (Photo by Sandra Chu)

Seniors Daniel Gilbert (Brighton/Rochester, N.Y.), Gardner Loring (Middlesex/Duxbury, Mass.), John Michael Chadonic (The Lawrenceville School/New York, N.Y.), Gavin Johnstone-Butcher (St. Paul’s School/Bulawayo, Zimbabwe), and Timothy Faxon (Salisbury School/Pelham, N.Y.) were the sixth collegiate four to cross the line, outlasting Division I powerhouses Syracuse, Yale, Penn, Brown, and Princeton.

The Statesmen battled against other boats both figuratively and literally as one competitor chose to row over Hobart’s oars in the last 500 meters of the race. Recovering quickly and keeping their composure, the Statesmen didn’t let that slow them down.

“This is a special group of seniors,” Interim Director of Rowing Sandra Chu said. “They’ve been working on some small, but crucial changes this fall. It would’ve been easy for them to rest on their laurels, but today, by executing those changes, they reached new speeds. They proved that you don’t have to be from a big program to register big results.”

Powered by junior coxswain Nick Hoagland (Millbrook School/New York, N.Y.), junior Mike Grenier (Brooks School/Methuen, Mass.), junior John Duke (Brooks School/Providence, R.I.), sophomore Richard Klein (Staples/Westport, Conn.), junior Robert Reinheimer (Cheverus/Bowdoinham, Maine), junior Dave Drennan (Greenhills School/Ann Arbor, Mich.), junior Sep Levatich (Ithaca/Ithaca, N.Y.), first-year Andrew O’Donnell (Salisbury School/Ancramdale, N.Y.), and sophomore Andrew Meunier (Shenendehowa/Round Lake, N.Y.), Hobart demonstrated powerful strokes, finishing 1:05.04 behind the winner, Trinity, in the collegiate eights. The Statesmen bested New York State rivals Ithaca, Saint Lawrence, and Hamilton.

“The field in the collegiate eights event was fierce and very tight this year,” said Chu. A few hundredths of a second separated many crews. Hobart’s finish order does not begin to reflect the quality of the boat’s performance. Their row was solid and aggressive.”

Hobart will be back in action on Oct. 29 as the team travels to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. for the Head of the Fish.

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