The newly formed Arlington-Belmont high school crew competed in its first two regattas of the season.
On Saturday, May 9, the crew traveled to the Lowell Invitation Regatta where it met with stiff competition from a large contingent of high school crews from around the state. AB Crew entered eight boats in the daylong event. The girls lightweight varsity four (Emily Merfeld, Lisa Liddell, Maddie Mesard, and Sarah Gibbons, coxed by Preyel Patel) finished with an excellent time of five minutes, 7.7 seconds. The girls first varsity four (Taylor Conley, Amy Davis, Sophie Burke, and Chiara Cipriano, coxed by Kevin Corsino) finished fifth in their flight with a time of 5:57. While the girls second varsity four (Stephanie Loughran, Nadine Karaa, Katie Merfeld, and Leah Coconides, coxed by Gabriella Grimaldi) finished in 6:45.3. The boys varsity four (Dan Abram, Alex Vazquez, James Arone, and Jason Kleckner, coxed by Gabriella Grimaldi) finished in 6:16.1. The boys novice four (Ted Thayer, Nicholas Frigo, Spencer Constable, and John Arciprete, coxed by Zach McCabe) finished in 6:52.8 behind teams from Duxbury, Medford, Manchester, and Worcester. The girls novice eight (Erin Shea, Katherine Delaney, Michelle Duffy, Sarah Kranz, Laura Meadows, Raffi Pontes, Clara Friedman, and Raveena Kothare, coxed by Michaela Reggio) finished with a time of 6:40.6. The second girls novice eight (Maria Lobo, Chantel Toomajanian, Rebecca Pelofsky, Emily Casey, Maggie Beverly, Angela Tutein, Maya Velasquez Creach, and Caroline Chobanian, coxed by Linda Wei) finished in a blazing time of 5:04.8, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the tough competition in their flight from Duxbury, Lawrence, Cape Cod Rowing, and Boston Latin.
Despite the drizzly weather, the morning of races was a wonderful start to the season for the newly formed team. Regatta organizers said of the fundraising and education effort, “it is unacceptable that when you see an eight go by, filled with vibrant and healthy girls, that statistics suggest that at least one of them will suffer from this disease. We aim to improve their odds through education and awareness.”