Carroll crew brings home PCL championship win

Archbishop Carroll’s Varsity 4+ topped Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast to take home the gold in this year’s Philadelphia Catholic League crew championship.

The Girls Varsity 4+ sought their first medal of the season. Carroll came out oars blazing, pulling ahead of Bonner-Prendie by almost a full boat length in the first 500 meters. The varsity girls (Audrey Becker, Cassandra Pendleton, Bridget Sheridan, and Cat Crossan, coxed by Megan Rayner) would keep their foot on the gas until the very end, posting a 6:12 finish to Prendie’s 6:31, a substantial 19-second differential, to claim a gold medal, the first one of the year, for Archbishop Carroll.

“I was a little confident, but mostly nervous. . . I enjoyed the adrenaline of coming in first and being two boat lengths ahead,” said Varsity 4+ member Cas Pendleton regarding her first PCL Championship.

Despite only earning one medal, the performance of all of the boats was encouraging to the coaching staff.

“I was very happy with the way [our] boats went out and raced,” Girls Head Coach Steve Gennaro said. “[Catholic Championships] allow us to identify areas of a high stakes race that we did well in or where we need to improve. As we head into the City Championship and the Stotesbury Cup, we have time to improve where we need to and find that speed we need to be in medal contention.”

Carroll Crew raced four boats Saturday: a Girls Novice 4+, a Girls Varsity 4+, a Boys Novice 4+, and a Boys Varsity 8+. These boats have already found some success this season at Manny Flicks 1 and 2, posting competitive times, and often placing in their respective heats.

In the second race of the day, Carroll’s Girls Novice 4+ faced off against Bonner-Prendie. It was a tight matchup for all 1500 meters, but the Patriots were ultimately unable to pull it out, despite putting up an impressive Novice time of 6:23, just 10 seconds behind their rivals. In matchups against other crews, including LaSalle and Saint Joe’s Prep, both the Boys Novice 4+ and the Boys Varsity 8+ came up short of first place. However, the Boys Novice 4+ finished in third place, posting a time of 5:34, with Saint Joe’s Prep and LaSalle taking first and second.

“We’ve put in the work over the past year in terms of gaining fitness and working out, but with the tough situation of the 2020 spring, we are now just learning what all that hard work was really for,” said Boys Head Coach Chris Eberz. “The strides we make from race to race have been impressive and I’m excited to see what we can pull off in these last few weeks.”