the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the Ridgewood Crew enjoyed a hard-fought victory in the Jim Barker Cup series and scored five other top 10 finishes on Sunday at the prestigious Head of the Schuylkill Regatta, a 4,150-meter head course in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now in its sixth decade, the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta attracts rowers from around the world, and this year featured nearly 2,200 entries in high school, university, and masters categories from 276 clubs, four countries.
The 2023 Jim Barker Mens High School frosh/novice singles gold-medal rower
Graham Richardson, alongside Ridgewood Crew Coaches Lauren Tedeschi, Boris
Roque-Alvarez, and Kassandra Luna (left to right). (Photo courtesy of R. Richardson.)
The highlight of the day for Ridgewood Crew was Graham Richardson’s gold-medal winning performance in the Jim Barker Mens High School frosh/novice singles race (15:26). The 14-year-old Richardson beat out 27 other rowers to claim victory by a razor-thin margin. Just four-and-a-half seconds separated the first, second, and third place rowers.
All the high school singles races at the Head of the Schuylkill are named in honor of Jim Barker, a US rowing legend. Barker, a national singles champion in 1948, amassed 24 national championship titles during his career and has been inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.
“We’re happy with this past weekend’s results since this is an international competition and our team is made up mostly of young rowers,” said Ridgewood Crew head coach Boris Roque-Alvarez. He also singled out Richardson for his performance on Sunday and this fall. “He’s had a medal in every single race this season, sometimes racing against rowers of a much older age group. Impressive results for such a young rower!”
Samantha Ponomarciuc scored a 5th-place finish — the second-highest for Ridgewood Crew on Sunday — in the Jim Barker Womens High School junior varsity singles race (17:23). Will Carroll came in 6th out of 41 boats in the Jim Barker Mens junior varsity race (15:25).
Other Ridgewood standout performances included a 6th-place finish for the Mens High School junior varsity pairing of Sam Scharfenberg and Tristan Riedel (13:43), who faced a very crowded field featuring 43 other boats. In the Womens category of this junior varsity race, Thelma Flowers and Samantha Ponomarcium came in 10th (15:55).
In the quad races, the Mens High School junior varsity team of Will Nasr, Lucas Evers, Will Carroll, and Umhjoo Han claimed Ridgewood’s fastest time of the day on the course (12:45), good enough for a 10th place finish out of 37 boats overall.
Full times and results for Ridgewood Crew at the 2023 Head of the Schuylkill Regatta can be found at https://www.herenow.com/results/#/races/21181/results.
About Ridgewood Crew
In the program’s 20-year history, Ridgewood Crew rowers have 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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