Jefferson Sprints to Victory

Varsity Boys' 8 Upsets Favored Saint Joseph's

Members of the Jefferson crew team toss senior coxswain Jordan Hurley into the Schuylkill River after winning their second championship in three years. (Joseph Kaczmarek - The Washington Post)

PHILADELPHIA, May 20 -- Before he could be certain, Jefferson senior coxswain Jordan Hurley took a glance to his right.

Yes, it was true.

With a stunning sprint to the finish, Jefferson's varsity boys' eight won its second title in three years at the 80th annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia on Saturday, racing past favored and defending champion Saint Joseph's Prep (Pa.) in the final 50 meters of the 1,500-kilometer race. Jefferson finished with a time of 4 minutes 43.1 seconds.

"I thought we had passed them," Hurley said. "I just wanted to make sure they weren't able to come back on us."

On Saturday, the Colonials were the ones who were able to perform the most impressive comeback. Five weeks ago, Prep had defeated Jefferson at a regatta in Delaware by nearly four seconds.

But on the Schuylkill, Prep's home river (and where it shares a $3 million boathouse with Saint Joseph's University), Jefferson stayed with the eight-time champions as well as rival Philadelphia Catholic League power Monsignor Bonner from the start. As the race drew to a close, Bonner fell back and Jefferson surged. Jefferson edged the Hawks by 0.75 of a second. Bonner (4:50.0) finished third.

After he saw the result, Hurley raised his arms and his boatmates -- seniors Joel Peterson, Nolan Maher and Erik Douglas and juniors Bryan Ward, Ty Otto, Lee Rumpf, Dan Muir and Marcos Carzolio -- followed suit.

Like they had last week, in winning the boat's eighth straight Virginia state championship, the members of the Jefferson boat all wore matching white hats on the course. On Saturday, though, Carzolio's blew off from the boat's speed with about 500 meters left.

"We row in the summer, row in the fall, row in the mornings and it's all pretty much for this regatta," said Maher, the only member of both of Jefferson's Stotesbury winning boats. "We put in too much work to be happy with anything less than first."

In the last four years, Jefferson has finished no worse than second in the race. Its victory two years ago was the first time an area boys' varsity eight had won the top race at Stotesbury, considered the world's oldest and largest high school regatta, since 1969.

"I feel like in some ways this legitimizes our program," Jefferson Coach Jim Granger said. "It shows that it wasn't a fluke for us two years ago to win this."

Jefferson's finish highlighted an otherwise disappointing day for area boats in the regatta's top races. No area boat qualified for the finals in the girls' varsity eight, boys' lightweight eight or either of the varsity fours. McLean's girls, however, did take the bronze medal in the lightweight eight.

Stotesbury Cup Regatta Hurley Hurled: After their victory in the boys' varsity eight race, the members of Jefferson's varsity eight tossed coxswain Jordan Hurley into the Schuylkill River in celebration. Bombs Away: McLean's girls' lightweight eight, which took third, has plenty of pre-race traditions -- eating lemons and singing "Build Me Up Buttercup" -- but might have added a new one when a bird pooped on sophomore Caroline Hecht's leg during the boat's morning meeting.