April 3, 2004

ITHACA, N.Y.--For the second week in a row, Hobart College's varsity eight and freshmen eight defeated local rival Ithaca College's best offerings. The varsity covered the race in a time of 6:10.0, nine seconds ahead of the Bombers. The win brought home the Statesmen Duel Race Trophy.

Team captain senior Havilland Campbell (LaSalle/Philadelphia, Pa.) was pleased with Hobart's effort, but recognized that there are lots of races remaining.

"We did what we had to do this weekend to come away with a victory," Campbell said. "At the same time, we need to look toward to improving our speed over the days and weeks of practice to come."

This week's varsity eight featured a young line-up with two seniors, Campbell and coxswain Sarah Roberts (Burnt Hills-Balltson Lake/Burnt Hills, N.Y.), junior Michael Hoepp (Choate Rosemary Hall/Bedford, N.H.), two first-years Sep Levatich (Ithaca/Brooktondale, N.Y.) and Michael Grenier (Brooks School/Methuen, Mass.), and four sophmores Gardner Loring (Middlesex/Duxbury, Mass.), JM Chadonic (The Lawrenceville School/New York, N.Y.), Timothy Faxon (Salsbury/Pelham, N.Y.), and Gavin Johnstone-Butcher (St. Paul’s School (N.H.)/Bulawayo, Zimbabwe).

The freshmen eight race was led early by the Bombers, but Hobart moved through Ithaca during the second half of the race to win by 4 seconds.

"It took the freshmen the first half of their race to find their rhythm," noted Head Coach Mike Guerrieri. "But once they did, they were able to pull through Ithaca in the last 500 meters to win by open water."

The freshmen line-up included, cox: Nick Hoagland (Millbrook School/New York, N.Y.), stroke: Ben Draper (The Branson School/St. Anselmo, Calif.), 7: Nate Kress (Ithaca/Ithaca, N.Y.), 6: Paul Wasmund (Fabius-Pompey/Fabius, N.Y.), 5: Joe Jameson (Brebeuf Jesuit/Indianapolis, Ind.), 4: Dave Drennan (Greenhills School/Ann Arbor, Mich.), 3: Rob Reinheimer (Chererus/Bowdoinham, Maine), 2: Alex Caruthers (Bishop O'Dowd/Kensington, Calif.), and bow: Jared Desrochers (Shenendehowa/Clifton Park, N.Y.).

Hobart's only loss of the day came in the second novice eight event. Ithaca's second novice boat took an early boat-length lead off of the start. Undeterred, the Hobart novice men walked back on Ithaca and were essentially even coming into the last 100 meters. In the final strokes, Ithaca's boat pulled just slightly ahead to win by 0.7 seconds.

"It was an exciting race that came down to the last stroke," Guerrieri said. "The novices really gave it a good effort, I was happy with their performance."

The second novice eight line-up included cox: Hoagland, stroke: Caruthers, 7: Kress, 6: first-year Mike Guglielmo (Northern Highlands/Allendale, N.J.), 5: first-year Chip Armstrong (St. Anthony's/Mt. Sinai, N.Y.), 4: sophomore Roy Roca (Landmark/New York, N.Y.), 3: first-year Ian Murray (Nashua/Nashua, N.H.), 2: Desrochers, and bow: first-year Andy King (Bethlehem/Delmar, N.Y.).

In the varsity four with cox event, Hobart's was having a good race and was challenging Ithaca when they encountered an equipment problem at the halfway point and were unable to finish.