Titan Crew
2013 Spring Schedule
SJJ finishes 1st in men's division at Frogtown Regatta
St. John’s Jesuit and other local teams hosted the Frogtown Regatta at Toledo’s International Park on Saturday, September 22. The Titans once again had hopes of bringing home the Total Points Trophy on their home course, but instead settled for dominating all of the men’s teams.
The team entered 11 total races throughout the day and delivered with nine medal-winning performances (two gold, five silver, two bronze finishes). The Titans overcame harsh weather conditions and back-to-back-to-back racing situations to lead the charge for all the men’s teams. Virtually every active rower earned a medal during the Frogtown races for a total of 56 on the day, doubling the team total from the previous weekend.
Notable races included a gold medal victory from the Lightweight 4 (Hartkopf, Nowicki, A. Prephan, Stoll, Brodin), silver medal finishes from the Lightweight 8 (Ltwt 4 plus Ba. OBrien, Beebe, Hasselbach, Mack), Novice 4 (Christopher, G. Miller, Gardner, J. Miller) and 2nd Varsity 8 (Rai, Win, Carlson, Vermeulen, Nye, Gaynor, Earle, Z. Prephan, Schifko), and a bronze medal finish from the Novice 8 (Mehta, J. Miller, Christopher, Patrisso, G. Miller, Schwallie, Tracz, Br. OBrien, Buck).
The team accumulated points based on top finishes (6-first, 4-second, 2-third) and earned 36 to lead all men’s competition. The Titans were edged in the total team points by two co-educational crews, finishing first among men, third overall.
Men's Points Totals:
1. St. John's Jesuit 36 points (56 medals)
2. Westerville 27 points
3. Ann Arbor Pioneer 21 points
4. Upper Arlington 19 points
5. Dublin 16 points
Team Points Trophy (Men and Women Combined):
1. Westerville 50 points
2. Upper Arlington 38 points
3. St. John's Jesuit 36 points
Fall Season Medal Count: 84 (24 gold, 51 silver, 9 bronze)
Titans snag 28 medals at Head of the Cuyahoga
The Titan Rowing Team opened their season with the Head of the Cuyahoga in Cleveland on September 15 with lofty goals in mind: win the total team points trophy. With strong teams from around the Midwest Region and with racing St. Ignatius on their home course, the Titans rose to the occasion and executed an outstanding team performance.
Points are awarded to gold, silver, and bronze-medal winners finishes and, during the team's first race, the Novice 8 tallied an early points finish. Led by varsity coxswain Eric Hartkopf and returning novice rowers James Miller, Zach Christopher, and Greg Miller, the boat earned a silver medal and 4 points for the team with teammates Greg Patrisso, Jared Schwallie, Wilfred Herring, Brenden OBrien, and Austin Buck in their first career scholastic race. Later in the morning, the Novice 4 (Samin Rai, Christopher, G. Miller, Aaron Gardner, J. Miller) added a bronze medal finish and two points to the team total.
The Varsity Crew took to the water and immediately made an impact. Hartkopf led Steven Nowicki, David Stoll, and co-captains Andrew Prephan and Erik Brodin to winning the Lightweight 4 with a dominant gold-medal performance. Heading in to the last race of the day, the Titans needed a second place or better finish to avoid a tie and take the men's points title from rival St. Ignatius. The Lightweight 8 (Hartkopf, Nowicki, Bailey OBrien, Stoll, Brodin, William Beebe, A. Prephan, Alex Hasselbach, Austin Mack) delivered and ended the day with a gold medal over St. Ignatius to lock up the men's team victory.
Men's Points Totals:
1. St. John's Jesuit --- 18 points (28 medals)
2. Case W. Reserve --- 14 points (20 medals)
3. TIE St. Ignatius --- 10 points (32 medals)
St. Edward's --- 10 points (32 medals)
Upper Arlington --- 10 points (24 medals)
Team Points Trophy (Men and Women Combined):
1. TIE Upper Arlington --- 22 points
Case W. Reserve --- 22 points
2. St. John's Jesuit --- 18 points
3. North Allegheny --- 16 points
Fall Season Medal Count: 28 (14 gold, 14 silver)
Welcome to the Fall 2012 Season!
The St. John's High School Rowing Team has been a staple in the Midwest region as a model of success and, in the 48th season of Titan rowing, the crew has continued to build its name. The team has grown in size and prestige since its first season in the fall of 1986, including garnering many championship titles, honorable event invitations, and perpetuating its now long-standing tradition of graduating not only strong and confident young men, but young men who, in many cases, have gone on to row at the collegiate level at some of the nation's top universities.
Titan rowers have gone on to compete at Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, Wisconsin, Fordham, Michigan, The Ohio State University, Miami of Ohio, Boston University, Boston College, Holy Cross, Dayton, Army, Air Force, Syracuse, St. Joseph's, Dartmouth, Stanford, Trinity Cincinnati, and Xavier.
The level of the crew's success has stemmed from exceptional desire and leadership. For 20 years, Titan rowing had the benefit of having one of the region's longest-tenured and most knowledgeable coaches, Rod McElroy, who had built the program to what it is today. During this time, exceptional young men came together in recognition of the sport's demands: that in crew, the ultimate team sport, a boat must settle for nothing short of exemplifying the simple motto of being "men for others".
Not only does the sport require exceptional discipline and determination, it also requires supreme strength and fitness. Our athletes train all major muscle groups and condition the body both anaerobic and aerobically in what becomes, to many, a lifelong sport. In short, all Titans should consider rowing. Although the intensity of the sport is sometimes lost in the grace of a well-rowed crew or because the rowing motion is low-impact on the athlete's joints, rowing is still the perfect training regimen for any serious athlete!
This last spring season our crew modeled exceptional teamwork, pulling together excellent successes throughout the season, namely at our championship regattas. During the Midwest Championship - the qualifying race for Nationals - all of our crews performed well. Our Varsity 8+, the pinnacle event of crew, came just shy of a qualifying race as did our Novice 4+ and 8+, and Lightweight 8+. The highlight came through our Varsity 4+, which ended with a bronze medal finish at the championship, earning the chance to race at Nationals. After moving through preliminary races the following weekend, the V4 ended the season with a 9th overall finish in the nation.
During the fall and spring seasons, crew competes in regattas in Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Culver, Dayton, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Westerville, and the Scholastic National Championships, offering the families of rowers many opportunities to travel with their sons and siblings, to meet others of like mind, and to get involved with many aspects of the sport.
While our returning rowers look to defend their Midwest titles and improve on an otherwise vastly successful season, we are also looking forward to introducing the next wave of Titan rowers. We practice in Downtown Toledo, with the boathouse located at International Park on the mighty Maumee River. The first week of practice will be spent introducing novice (or "beginner") rowers to the boathouse and teaching the basics of the rowing stroke. Within a week the novices will experience rowing on the water in the "Leviathan" - a very stable - and safe - rowing shell, combining two boats side-by-side to maximize teaching and training. Once the novices build a firm foundation, they are ready to begin contributing to our program's rich tradition.
Are YOU up to the challenge? In the words of Coach McElroy: "Cheers".
Coach Phil Levering
SJJRowing@gmail.com