October 26, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carole Grills
(413) 585-2703

Smith Crew Finishes Second at Seven Sisters Championship Regatta

Northampton, MA: The novice 8 and second novice 8 won their races while the the varsity and junior varsity eights both finished fourth to give the Pioneers second place in the 22nd annual Seven Sisters Championship Regatta held today on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mount Holyoke won its second consecutive team championship taking first in the varsity eight, second in the junior varsity 8 and novice 8 and third in the second novice eight for 24 points.  Smith had 20 points while Wellesley finished third with 17, Simmons fourth with 16 and host Bryn Mawr fifth with four points.

The novice eight boat comprised of  coxswain Viveka Bhandari (New Delhi, India), Robin Spencer (Strafford, VT), Dara Benton (Baltimore, MD), Ashley Niles (Colrain, MA), Margaret Harpin (Boxford, MA) Lydia Bussiere (South Hadley, MA), Rafaela Carlisle Swedberg (Brookline, MA), Rachel Axtell (Westminster West, VT) and Lorna Pyle (San Francisco, CA) held off two-time defending race winner Mount Holyoke and won in 16:21.994.  Mount Holyoke raced to second in 16:58.238, Byrn Mawr third in 17:09.044, Simmons fourth in 17:14.001 and Wellesley fifth in 17:41.798.

The second novice eight raced to first in 16:54.101 followed by Simmons "A" (17:47.492), Mount Holyoke (18:14.532), Wellesley (18:44.102) and Bryn Mawr (21:00.326). Jayna Shea (Beverly, MA) was the Pioneers coxswain with Hannah Pearce (East Albany, VT) in seat 8, Danielle Shelton (Waukesha, WI) in 7; Sarah Gokey (Fargo, ND) in 6; Clare Landefeld (Tiburon, CA) in 5; Elizabeth Forgeil (Bradford, NH) in 4; Kirby Russell (Yorktown Heights, NY) in 3; Angela Blais (Westbrook, ME) in seat 2 and Emily Naumberg (Columbia, MD) in one.

Mount Holyoke won the varsity eight race in 15:19.105, Wellesley second in 15:26.775, Simmons third (15:40.406), Smith fourth (15:44.501) and Bryn Mawr fifth in 16:40.750.
Members of the the Smith crew were coxswain Danielle Covatta (Accomac, VA), Chantel Pheiffer (Norwich, CT), Lela Schlenker (Norwich, VT), Anna Frej (Marblehead, MA), Eliza  van Lennep (Rindge, NH), Eliza Bryant (East Greenwich, RI), Gabriele Kubik (White Bear Lake, MN), Molly Johnson (Roslindale, MA) and Katharine von Herrmann.

The second varsity eight boat also finished fourth (16:22.225) behind Wellesley (15:52.278), Mount Holyoke A (15:55.958) and Simmons (16:13.012).  Amanda Taus (Wellesley, MA) was the coxswain with Catherine Davie (Little Rock, AR), Simone D'Abreu (Queens Villiage, NY), Elaine Machietto (Southwick, MA), MacKenzie Clark (Rochester, MN), Chelsea Andrews (Norwich, CT), Colleen Clark (Chapel Hill, NC), Christina Dragon (Las Cruces, NM) and Nora Leitermann (Hamden, CT).

Von Herrmann and Benton were named to the All Regatta Team.