Chaminade (N.Y.) wins 4th straight Lake Lenape Cup

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Chaminade (N.Y.) wins 4th straight Lake Lenape Cup

By GUY GARGAN For The Press, 609-272-7210

Published: Sunday, March 23, 2008

MAYS LANDING - Things were a little confusing at Saturday's fifth annual Lake Lenape Invitational boys regatta, because it was a bit hard to distinguish between the blue-colored uniforms of St. Augustine Prep, Holy Spirit and La Salle High School (Pa.) as they raced down the lake.

The only team easy to identify was Chaminade (Long Island, N.Y.) with all its members wearing bright red. The Flyers further simplified things by being at the head of the pack in the big races.

Chaminade, like St. Augustine, won four of the 10 races, but three of the New York school's victories came in the varsity eight, junior eight and second eight, three of the event's four top divisions.

Chaminade scored 107 points to win the team points championship, called the Lake Lenape Cup, for the fourth year in a row. The Flyers also took home the John Mahoney Cup, signifying the varsity-eight winner.

Coach John Callinan, who started the Chaminade program in 1998, talked about the win as he stood by the table that held the silver Mahoney Cup and the larger, gold Lake Lenape Cup.

"Between the teams from Philadelphia and New Jersey, you can't get better competition," Callinan said. "The crews were so close to each other, as you could see by the varsity-eight race. It came down to the last few strokes."

St. Augustine took the varsity-four race and got big performances by its youngsters, winning the freshman-eight A, freshman-eight B and novice-eight races. The Hermits finished second in scoring with 89 points. La Salle won two races and placed third with 66.

Holy Spirit, which celebrated the return of veteran coach Stan Bergman, was shut out of the win column. The Spartans had a best finish of second place by their second eight. The Holy Spirit varsity eight finished fourth.

Chaminade's red uniforms also seemed to be everywhere in the crowd at Lake Lenape Park. After all, Callinan brought his entire team of 95 students.

"We have a lot of depth, and that helped to get us over the top," Callinan said. "Our varsity eight, second eight and junior eight are our top three boats. We brought 10 eights and a four (boat). Everyone contributed. We had a lot of seconds and they all added to the total."

Chaminade's varsity eight had the lead by a couple seats over La Salle and St. Augustine with 500 meters to go, and the Flyers held on to win. The winning crew, nearly all seniors who will row in college next year, was bow John Miller (Georgetown), Chris Murphy (Yale), Kevin Allen, Matthew Matyjek (Georgetown), Dan Kirrane (Columbia), Sean Tuffy (Wisconsin), Alex Rubert (Princeton), stroke Tom Olivera (Columbia), and coxswain Joe Orlich (Cal-Berkeley).

The St. Augustine varsity-four crew of bow Greg Vandenberg, Greg Lilly, Kevin McClain, stroke Andrew Rivenbark and coxswain John Gentile beat Chaminade in a two-boat race.

"For so early in the season, I'm very pleased with how (the whole team) did today," St. Augustine coach Ray D'Amico said. "I thought our varsity eight was very fast. They picked up about 15 seconds over last week. Our freshman boats are the strongest we've ever had.

"Chaminade is good, and that's why we invited them. They're a true test, one of the best teams in the country."

RESULTS

TEAM SCORING - 1. Chaminade, 107; 2. St. Augustine Prep, 89; 3. La Salle, 66; 4. Holy Spirit, 38; 5. Monsignor Bonner, 35.

NOVICE EIGHT - 1. St. Augustine (bow Dan Fitzpatrick, Kevin Sullivan, Anthony Cherone, Vince DiPentino, John Szramiak, Bobby Applegate, Joe Mohnack, stroke Mike Sutton, coxswain Brian Dondero) 5:22.5; 2. Chaminade A; 3. Monsignor Bonner; 4. Chaminade B.

THIRD VARSITY EIGHT- 1. La Salle B, 4:45.2; 2. Chaminade; 3. Holy Spirit; 4. La Salle A; 5. St. Augustine.

SECOND LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT - 1. Chaminade, 5:13.7; 2. St. Augustine.

FRESHMAN EIGHT B - 1. St. Augustine A (bow Max Levine, Joe Di Giacomo, Tim Carmody, Ryan Tolbert, Gino Garofalo, Mike Sutton, Bill Smith, stroke Brian Wade, coxswain Sean Stevens), 5:26.20; 2. St. Augustine B; 3. Chaminade; 4. Holy Spirit.

FRESHMAN EIGHT A - 1. St. Augustine (bow Kevin Walls, Wyatt Kimble, Stephen Lindeman, Zach Zipf, Vito D'Arcangelo, Vincent Scelso, Wesley Kimble, stroiek Kevin Jones, coxswain David Virunum) 5:18.0; 2. Chaminade; 3. Monsignor Bonner; 4. Holy Spirit.

JUNIOR EIGHT - 1. Chaminade, 4:50.0; 2. La Salle; 3. St. Augustine; 4. Monsignor Bonner.

VARSITY FOUR - 1. St. Augustine, 5:49.34; 2. Chaminade.

SECOND VARSITY EIGHT - 1. Chaminade, 4:45.0; 2. Holy Spirit; 3. La Salle; 4. St. Augustine; 5. Monsignor Bonner.

LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT - 1. La Salle, 4:25.04; 2. St. Augustine; 3. Monsignor Bonner; 4. Chaminade; 5. Holy Spirit.

VARSITY EIGHT - 1. Chaminade, 4:32.70; 2. La Salle; 3. St. Augustine; 4. Holy Spirit; 5. Monsignor Bonner.