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GW Men's Heavyweight 8 Wins Gold Medal at Fourth Annual Atlantic 10 Men's Invitational Regatta
April 27, 2002
COLLINGSWOOD, NJ - The GW Men's Rowing team completed a successful day of racing this past weekend when they competed in the Atlantic 10 Men's Rowing Invitational Saturday, April 27, on the Cooper River in Collingswood, NJ. Men's crews from five A-10 schools, GW, Fordham, Saint Joseph's, UMass, and Rhode Island took part in the racing.
The GW Men's Varsity Eight capped the day when it won the gold medal for the second year in a row over a strong crew from UMass. The win was the second victory of the afternoon for the Colonials. Earlier in the day, GW enjoyed a victory in the men's heavyweight freshman eight event.
Plagued by injuries, the Colonials (14-14) have struggled this spring and on the eve of the Atlantic 10 final one of the team's strongest oarsman, Belden Schroeder (Seattle, WA/Lakeside), was sidelined with a muscle injury. Men's head coach Gene Kininmonth replaced Schroeder with untested freshman, Alex Cashman (Pittsburgh, PA/Mt. Lebanon), who would then race in both the Freshmen Eight and the Varsity Eight. The move paid off. After racing (and winning) the freshman 8 final, Cashman jumped from the freshman boat into the varsity boat and raced again without rest.
The crew of bowman Frank Bottino (Bedford, NY/Fox Lane), Karl Crow (Kennedyville, MD/St. Andrew's), Tony Cipriano (Philadelphia, PA/Central), Grant Bursek (Megvon, WI/Homestead), Cashman, Joseph Richards (Syracuse, NY/C.W. Baker), Steve Carlson (Southborough, MA/Saint Markis), Vic Marwin (Snyder, NY/Canisius) and coxswain Evan Johnson (Guilford, CT/Guilford), led all the way in the final to to clock a race-record five minutes 43.7 seconds on the Cooper River course.
The win for the Colonials was a solid victory over UMass (21-2) which finished more than a boat-length behind in second place. Rhode Island (5-3) was third and Saint Joseph's (3-17) was fourth.
Rowing in lane four, the Colonials had the best start and led Rhode Island by a full boat length after 500 meters in the 2000m final. UMass then moved into second place at the halfway buoy and challenged the Colonials' lead.
An elated Marwin said after the race, "You hear the crowd, you know you are in front and it is an awesome feeling." The victory was the second A-10 Invite win for Marwin, Carlson and Bursek. All three were key members of last year's winning GW varsity crew.
Up next, the Colonial men race cross-town rival Georgetown this Sunday, May 5 at 8:00 a.m. in The Duel on the Potomac River.
