Dad Vail Results

PHILADELPHIA – Colgate produced another bountiful performance at the annual Jefferson Dad Vail Regatta, with the men's pair and men's junior varsity 4+ winning gold medals.
 
The Colgate men's varsity 8+, which won the Richard O'Brien Trophy two years ago in record time, appeared headed toward another medal performance after placing first in its semifinal heat. But the Raider chances for a repeat in the final were marred when a rival boat's troubles the next lane over threw the Colgate boat off its stride. The Raiders crossed in sixth place.
 
Ryan Pere and David McKay were the victorious Raider pair, winning the Bob Negaard Cup Final by 1.728 seconds over the team from second-place Drexel.
 
The key to our success was trust," McKay said. "We trusted each other to show up on race day, execute our race plan, and pull for each another. Especially in a pair where rowing together as one unit is crucial, we really focused on reminding ourselves that we have the training, skill, and drive to win.
 
"We spent only about a week in the boat together prior to Dad Vail, so to see ourselves remain composed and produce our best race possible in a short period of time was extremely rewarding."
 
The Colgate junior varsity 4+ swept to victories in the semifinal heat and the final. First-year crew member Harrison Zeigler said trust also played a huge role among he and fellow crew members Everett Graves, August Girard, Connor Appleyard and coxswain Garrett Kalter.

"The shared confidence and trust among our crew in knowing that we had prepared in every way possible to succeed on Saturday was the biggest driving force for our four to perform well in both the heat and the final," Zeigler said.

The Raiders now set their sights on the IRA National Championships. That regatta takes place May 26-29 in West Windsor, New Jersey.


 
Here are the results of each boat:
 
Men's Varsity 8+
Crew: 1 Riley Heise, 2 Elliot Duessel, 3 Gian Civitello, 4 Lucca Figlioli, 5 Colin Clark, 6 Thomas Feeney, 7 Noah Barkoff, 8 Andrew Smith.
Cox: Tali Filstein.
Heat Results: Colgate captured Heat 3 with a winning time of 6:01.418. Drexel was a close second in 6:03.584, followed by Virginia, Bucknell, Coast Guard and Fairfield.
Richard O'Brien Trophy Final Results: Colgate placed sixth with a time of 5:47.652. Temple captured the title in 5:29.581, followed by George Washington, Drexel, St. Joseph's and Stetson in 5:47.353.
 
Men's 2- (Pair without Coxswain)
Crew: Ryan Pere and David McKay
Bob Negaard Cup Final Results: The Raiders were victorious with a winning time of 7:19.782, or less than two seconds better than Drexel at 7:21.510. Loyola, Lafayette and Merchant Marine rounded out the field.
 
Men's Junior Varsity 4+
Crew: 1 Everett Graves, 2 Harrison Zeigler, 3 August Girard, 4 Connor Appleyard.
Cox: Garrett Kalter.
Heat Results: Colgate won its semifinal heat with a time of 7:14.430. The Raiders finished more than 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Virginia (7:34.528), with Temple and Bucknell rounding out the field.
Final Results: Colgate improved its time to 6:52.721 and coasted to an impressive 14-second victory over Drexel in 7:07.605. Bucknell, Virginia, Milwaukee School of Engineering and Temple completed the field.

From the Source (Colgate head coach Khaled Sanad): (On the Varsity 8+ race) "We had a good semi; we won the semi. We beat Drexel, which ended up getting a bronze medal. It was an easy win for us, to be honest with you, so we earned one of the favored lanes. The lanes at that river are staggered because it has a turn, like a 400-meter track has staggered starts. The George Washington boat from that staggered lane immediately launched into our lane. That caused our boat to move and we hit the buoy. By the time we recovered, all of the boats are gone out ahead of us. The GW boat was completely in our lane, so much so that the announcers calling the race kept saying it was the Colgate boat in Lane 2. That was supposed to be our boat but the GW boat was in the wrong lane and finished in the wrong lane.

"The bad news is there was supposed to be a referee who would give one warning to a boat and then a second warning and then should have stopped the race and disqualified the boat out of position. Then we would replay the race. But the referee didn't do that. They ran out of volunteers, the race course was not set right – the entire organization did a poor job and our protest was not handled correctly. You can see everything in the video on the Dad Vail website. One of the coaches in the race said we were victimized once by the other crew and a second time by the referee."

Sanad noted that a few events prior to the Colgate Varsity 8+ race, another crew cut the turn early and used a higher lane to take seconds off their turn. The race officials vacated that win in a protest. Similar grounds but without the interference.

"We are not holding onto hard feelings toward GW. Our issue is with the race committee and referees who did not run a fair race and made a series of bad choices that resulted in not just our team suffering but others as well.

"It was not fair and I am really upset. In my complaint to the Dad Vail board, I am telling them that if they are not going to change this then we were not coming back and we will compete in a different conference. Tali Filstein is our coxswain and she tells me that she has been working two years for this race. Two years to come back here. It's like we are in a nightmare."