3 local high school rowing teams medal at North Americas largest high school  regatta

A crew from each of Holy Trinity, Port Dover Composite and Simcoe Composite all managed to make the finals and medal at the 82nd annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia on the weekend.  This is North America’s largest high school rowing Regatta with over 5000 athletes attending from the United States and Canada.

5 crews from HT, SCS and PDCS qualified to attend this annual regatta which is an accomplishment in itself.

Chaundra Manorome and Kelsea Parker from SCS and Marcus Snow and Scott Fairley from PDCS qualified to attend this event for the first time, rowed very well and placed 7th and 13th overall respectively.

Ian Edwards from HT rowing the senior men’s single, Hannah Anderson and Samy Fairley from PDCS rowing the senior lightweight women’s double,  and Robbie Puddy with Terry Lovegrove from SCS rowing the senior men’s double  all qualified for the 2nd year in a row to attend the Stotesbury Cup. This time all three made it on the podium after advancing through time trials, and semi's Friday and Saturday. All three crews sat in 5th position in their final for a while in rough conditions until the last 500m calmer stretch of water where they all went past their competition to earn their podium finish.

Ian Edwards (HT) earned bronze, Hannah Anderson and Samy Fairley (PDCS) also earned bronze and Robbie Puddy and Terry Lovegrove (SCS) earned silver.

Coach Sue Fairley comments:  " We are all so happy for these athletes who made finals last year but missed making it on podium and used that as motivation to  continue to train hard so they could qualify to return to Philly again this year and fight hard to earn their podium finish. It  is a good example of dedication, perseverance and hard work paying off in life."

Robbie Puddy will compete at the Scholastic nationals in Tennessee next Saturday in a single.

All the rest drove to Welland arriving at 3am Sunday and on a few hours sleep competed in the High school invitational regatta in Welland rowing very well.

Ian Edwards (HT) teamed up fellow HT members Mike Veltri, John Veltri and Zac Azzopardi to qualify for the final and win bronze in the senior mens quad. Veltri and Azzopardi also rowed the junior mens double on the Saturday and came 4th overall.

Hannah Anderson and Samy Fairley rowed the under 63kg womens pair, also qualified for their final and came 2nd for the silver medal.  "We were thrilled to pull this off on less then 3 hours sleep and we really think we could have caught first but our tired bodies just wouldn't let us push any harder" exclaimed Hannah.

After taking a well deserved holiday Monday off the local schools will continue training as they prepare for the Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association regatta in London on May 24 and then finish off the high school season with the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing association Regatta in St. Catharines May 30/31 and June 1 weekend.

Attached is a picture of the team of athletes, proud parents and coaches  in Philadelphia.

Left to right( back row): Dave Puddy, Scott Cook, Robbie Puddy, Ian Edwards, Kelsea Parker, Chaundra Manorome, Marcus Snow, Scott Fairley, Tyler Wilson (assistant coach), Samy Fairley, Hannah Anderson, Terry Lovegrove. (front row): Kristina Puddy, Kelly Parker, Josie Edwards, Heather Pond-Manorome, Mike Anderson (High school Captain), Bev Snow, Brad Snow, Susan Fairley (Coach).

The Silver Lake Rowing Club was established in 1999 to promote the sport of rowing across Norfolk and Haldimand. For information regarding high school rowing programs the following coaches can be contacted: Port Dover CS/Simcoe CS Susan Fairley (519-583-0461), Holy Trinity – Lene Dover (519-429-6934) or Carla Aitken (519-428-7592); Valley Heights – Larry Wiebe (519-586-7307). To find out more about the Silver Lake Rowing Club, please call John Brinkman 519-583-9997 (Vice President - Rowing) or visit our web site at: www.silverlakerowingclub.com