Ridgewood Crew’s Lucia Krauza and Zurie Yela won their flight in the Girls JV 2x race at the 2026 Manny Flick 3 Regatta in Philadelphia. The pair were the youngest duo in the event. (Photo credit: Diva Yela)
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Ridgewood Crew kicked off its spring racing season in style on Sunday, winning half of all its races and claiming the overall sculling points title for the day at the 2025 Manny Flick 3 Regatta. This competition on the Schuylkill River, hosted by the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association, is part of a five-race series that serves as an early season test for rowing teams, who compete in separate heats/flights over a 1,500-meter sprint course. Sunday’s race was open to high school athletes from ninth through 12th grade, and attracted 377 entries from 74 clubs in the mid-Atlantic region. Ridgewood topped the field with 18 entries overall.
By day’s end, Ridgewood had amassed nine wins and seven additional top-three finishes. Its victory count was the most of any school at the regatta — three other schools tied for second place with five total wins on the day.
“Today’s race was the first on-the-water competition for us in nearly five months, so it gives the team a chance to see how far they have progressed during the winter training season,” said Ridgewood Crew Head Coach Boris Roque-Alvarez. “The wind conditions became more and more challenging as the day progressed, so we primarily focused on technique for this first spring race, still the team did well across every category.”
The freshman duo of Courtney Spence and Grace Demarcado started Ridgewood’s day in the Girls Freshman/Novice 2x, coming in first (7:07.00).
Ridgewood’s other girls double entry at Manny Flick 3 also took first, as sophomore Zurie Yela and freshman Lucia Krauza cruised to victory in the flight of the Girls JV 2x, beating the runner-up by nearly 10 seconds (6:36.78). Notably, Yela and Krauza had the youngest combined age of the 13 total boats in this category.
Continuing its dominance in small boats, Ridgewood scored a pair of top-three finishes in the Girls JV 1x races, with sophomores Nicole Manevich (7:20.04) and Marelia Leou (8:18.04) taking third place in their respective flights.
This success continued in the varsity singles races, where freshman Jaya Suri dominated the field and bested the second place finisher in her flight by more than 35 seconds (6:54.05). Fellow Girls Varsity 1x racer, Ridgewood senior Maya Ashwin, fought valiantly in her flight and took second, coming in less than two seconds behind the winner (7:33.02).
Senior Andrii Onizhuk was one of two Ridgewood boys to also claim victory in the singles boats, winning his Varsity 1x race by nearly eight seconds (7:39.42). Junior Siarhei Kotsikau added to the team’s victory total by taking first in his JV 1x flight (7:31.37), easily outpacing the runner-up by nearly 18 seconds.
Two of the team’s newest members, ninth graders Lincoln Boudreau and Jun Lee, put in an impressive performance in the Boys Freshman/Novice 2x, taking second out of five boats in their flight (7:26.21).
In the Boys Lightweight 2x event, Ridgewood saw two boats finish in the top three in the same race. The senior duo of Luciano Saladino and James Ryan pulled away from the second-place boat to take first in the event by nearly 10 seconds (6:36.70), while fellow seniors Daniel Hept and Paul Hallowell were just a few seconds behind the runner-up, in third (6:51.33).
Ridgewood’s final doubles race on Sunday featured seniors Matt Moomjy and Michael Shkop winning their Boys Varsity 2x flight by a wide margin of nearly 20 seconds (6:14.87).
Sculling racing’s biggest boat is the four-person quad, and Ridgewood showed off its depth in this category as well at the Manny Flick 3.
Ridgewood Crew took first and second in their flight of Boys JV 4x race at the 2026 Manny Flick 3 Regatta. The winning quad featured juniors Atticus Smith and Brendan Finucane, and sophomores David Pasternak and Kai Bissie. The runner-up quad included junior Gabe Dozortsev, and sophomores Isaac Reynolds, George Rivkin, and Alex Evers. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Riedel)
In the Boys JV 4x event, Ridgewood took the top two spots in one flight, while scoring a third-place finish in another. The boat of juniors Atticus Smith and Brendan Finucane, and sophomores David Pasternak and Kai Bissie claimed the win (5:52.32), while the fellow boat of junior Gabe Dozortsev, and sophomores Isaac Reynolds, George Rivkin, and Alex Evers slid into second behind them just 11 seconds later (6:03.45). Juniors Edward Amores and Kamran Sarmad, along with sophomores Isaac Rentoul-Gins and Sam Rizzo, made up the other JV 4x crew that came in third (6:55.26).
The final race for Ridgewood on Sunday came in the Boys Varsity 4x race, where senior Will Nasr, junior Tristan Riedel, and sophomore brothers Graham and Wesley Richardson, sailed to an easy win, gapping the second place boat by more than 35 seconds (5:29.09).
Full times and results for Ridgewood Crew at the 2026 3rd Manny Flick / Horvat Series can be found athttps://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2?job_id=10198&org_id=0.
In the program’s 20-plus years, Ridgewood Crew has competed and excelled in both national and international competitions and its athletes have attracted interest from top rowing colleges and universities around the country. Ridgewood Crew offers several ways for you to experience our mission: join the team, volunteer, or donate. Student athlete programs begin with Learn-To-Row for middle schoolers. For more information contact Ridgewood Crew at http://www.ridgewoodcrew.com.
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