The Haddon Township Crew Club opened their spring season this weekend at Villanova University at the Main Line Slide with some exceptional results. With nerves at their apex, in a difficult and stressful testing environment some of our athletes performed exceptionally well. Two of the most notable performances came from juniors; Emily Gartland and Tori King who finally shattered the 8 min mark for 2k. Tori posted a nearly 15 second improvement over her previous best and 17 seconds over her March 14th, 2009 mark, rowing a 7:51 and vying for the top spot on the team with senior Emily Davis! Other notable performance were Mandy Fry who posted an official test time of 8:04; 13 seconds over her previous best, and Quinn Fitzpatrick who fought tooth and nail to come in under the 7:20 mark at 7:19.9, a 5 second improvement over his previous best. Catie Ely has also continues to dramatically improve posting an 8:18.9, finishing just .1 of a second behind teammate Julie Cippon and improving her score over last year's mark by 28 seconds!
This was a great success for our first test of the year, especially amidst a lot of distractions and disruptions. To post a good score in that environment shows a lot of maturity as a team, something we lacked a little of last year. Without the distraction of a race postponement and three idle days off practice/school, I'm sure the Haddon Hammer will bring even better results.
