Marietta women's crew opens fall season at Head of the Genesee
Lady Pioneers take 22nd overall and 11th in College division

Oct. 7, 2007
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Marietta College women's crew opened its 2007 fall season Sunday (Oct. 7) by competing at the 19th annual Head of the Genesee Invitational Regatta in Genesee Valley Park. The event, which was co-hosted by the University of Rochester (N.Y.) and Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.), featured over 30 collegiate teams from the Northeast United States and Canada. The Pioneer women entered one boat in the Open 8, which featured 35 boats, including 24 crews that fit the college classification.

The Head of the Genesee, formerly know as the Stonehurst Invitational, draws top competition due to its unique regatta format. In the morning, crews competed over a three-mile headrace course. In the afternoon, crews were paired based on their headrace results, for a 1,500-meter sprint race. A formula helped determine the final placement of each boat.

Marietta's boat included freshman stroke Sam Rementer (Upper Darby, Pa./Archbishop Prendergast), senior Amanda Chuderewicz (Allison Park, Pa./Shaler Area), senior Amy Epling (Parkersburg, W.Va.), sophomore Caitlin Piotrowski (Dublin/Dublin Jerome), freshman Katherine Thomas (Cheswick, Pa./Fox Chapel Area), junior Krista Tkacz (Egg Harbor Twp., N.J.), senior Meg Foraker (New Lexington/Culver Academy) junior bow Anjouli Dapice (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Catholic) and sophomore coxswain Lauren Talasnik  (Mays Landing, N.J./Oakcrest). The Lady Pioneers opened the day with a 26th place finish (15th in the college division) in the headrace, crossing the line in19:53.58. Cornell had the fastest time overall, finishing in 17:48.68, while Williams, who placed sixth overall, was the first college crew to finish. It raced the three-mile course in 18:16.00.

Marietta faired better in the afternoon sprint, finishing with the 17th fastest time overall, 5:33.55, which was the seventh best time among college boats. Once again, Cornell had the fastest time overall, 5:08.23, in the sprint, while Williams won the college division in 5:18.19. Both also won the overall championship when the formula was applied to the two races. The Pioneers finished 22nd overall and 11th among college boats.

"I was very pleased with our results overall," said first-year Head Coach Kelly Harris. "We have only been on the water for four weeks, so finishing 11th overall among the 24 collegiate entries was a good starting point for the team this season. We were able to hold off William Smith in the afternoon 1,500m sprint race, which was also a good confidence builder for the crew."

Coach Harris is looking forward to seeing how much faster her team can get in the next three weeks before heading to Philadelphia, Pa., for the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. The freshmen will have their first opportunity to race there as well.

"We have a strong, positive and eager group of novices that are coming along very well under coach Chase Graham's direction," Harris said.