By Deborah Weisberg
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
North Allegheny, one of the top
high school rowing teams in the region, is hoping to make a splash this
Saturday when the Head of the Ohio, one of the nation’s largest fall rowing
events, is held on the Allegheny River.
Sponsored by the Mercy Foundation
and Three Rivers Rowing Association on Washington’s Landing, the race features
competitors from TRRA, Steel City Rowing in Verona and from as far away as
Ontario. NA used to row out of TRRA,
but moved last year to Robert Morris University’s facility on Neville Island.
“We now row on the Ohio, so we’ll
be going back to our old body of water as a traveling team and we’re psyched,”
said NA boys’ coach Melissa Titus of Wexford.
“This isn’t a local race to our kids.
It’s an event. It’s also an
adventure – for the past two years, the water’s been pretty rough.”
In head races, typically held in
the fall, rowers try to beat the clock, so weather, especially wind, is a
critical factor on the 2.8-mile course.
The official high school season is in spring when 1-mile sprints are
raced. “We go from local racing to
ramping up for regionals, then ramping up for the nationals,” Titus said.
Though not a WPIAL-sanctioned sport, 12 local high schools have rowing teams with some funding from their athletic departments and more from parents and student fund-raisers. In May, many of NA’s 80-member club went to Detroit for the Midwest scholastic Championships, where the boys’ and girls’ teams combined to finish second in overall points, a step down from last year, when they had placed first.
“This was one of the worst springs
on the river in years,” said Titus.
“The water was so high and fast, it gave us about three weeks of water
time instead of two months. A lot of
scrimmages got canceled.”
The best rowers from Detroit were
invited to the US Rowing Youth Invitational in Cincinnati in June. There, Jen Landis, now an NA senior, and
Megan Batykefer, who had graduated the week before but qualified during the
school year, took a second place in the women’s double.
Landis will pair this weekend with
senior Ellen Maskrey. Seeded first in
the event are Emma Shouciar and Eileen Froehlke, of Fox Chapel, who row out of
Steel City. Landis and Maskrey will
team in a quad with senior Liz Myer and sophomore Chelsea Nikithser. Junior Hailey Myers and senior Michelle
Biozzo will race in singles. Steel City
also has the first seed – Emily Schofield, of Shadyside Academy – in the single.
“Most teams focus on eight
sweeps,” said Titus, referring to an event where rowers use a single oar, in
contrast to sculling, which involves two oars.
“We’re more focused on singles, doubles and quads. Sculling is a little more sensitive. Those are the races we did well in last
year.”
“Sculling is more fun,” Landis
said. “It’s more personable, because,
in sculling races you don’t have a coxswain, so you’re more reliant on steering
and motivating yourself.”
The NA boys junior B quad won gold
in 2001 at the US Rowing Club Nationals in Camden, NJ, in July, but all moved
up to the 18-and-under age bracket this year and finished fourth, missing
bronze by two-tenths of a second, Titus said.
They included Michael Ban, Jordan Ellis, Ryan Moravec, and Tim Francis,
all juniors.
Ban, Ellis and Moravec will each
row as singles on Saturday. Central
Catholic’s Matt Gordon, out of Steel City, is the first seed. Francis will pair with senior Mike Maffuccio
in doubles. Juniors Mike Taylor, Tom
Kritko and Pete Unkovic and sophomore Dan Boada also will race in a quad.
NA rowers pay $250 a year to their
rowing club and pay their way on trips.
During the school year, they
practice on the water in the late afternoon and evening and work out at the
school’s Baierl Center for Excellence.