Temple University Athletics
Men's Pair Wins National Championship At IRA Regatta
6.2.07 | Men's Crew
June 2, 2007
CAMDEN, NJ - Temple's pair of junior stroke James Harding and senior bow Peter Gostling won the National Championship at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta Saturday morning on the Cooper River. The Owls' pair won in style, setting the course record for the event while winning the Crandall Melvin. Sr. Trophy. The Owls' Varsity 4 with coxswain held off Brown for a silver medal.
"I'm really proud of the way our kids in the gold medal pair handled themselves with such poise," Temple head coach Gavin White said. "Wisconsin tried to rattle them by taking a big early lead. We were patient and very methodically took them down."
Temple led briefly in the first 500 meter when Wisconsin made a big move at 750 meter mark to go up by one length. The Badgers then stretched the lead to 1 1/4 length with 750 meters to go before Temple, which had fallen to third, began to roll. With Wisconsin holding one-third length lead over the Owls with 500 meters remaining, Harding raised the rate to 38 strokes per minute to draw the Owls even. Harding and Gostling then raised the rate again to 40 strokes per minute to push past the Badgers for the win.
Harding and Gostling rowed the course in 6:47.162, narrowly edging second-place Wisconsin (6:48.92). Columbia (6:51.646) and Yale (6:53.101) placed third and fourth respectively.
In the men's Varsity 4 with coxswain, Temple led early, but was overtaken by California around 500 meters into the race. Cal, which completed the course in 6:20.622, pulled away to over one length at the 1000 meters marker. Temple (6:24.370) closed to one-half length twice, but was unable to break through losing by 2.1 seconds. The Owls crew, comprised of junior stroke Thomas Haubrich, junior Robert Protesto (3-seat), senior Dante Cammarata (2-seat), junior Nicholas Vlahos (bow) and junior Rory Roberts (coxswain) bested Brown (6:24.742) and Gonzaga (6:25.059) by less than seven-tenths of a second.
"Our Varsity Four rowed perhaps their best piece of the weekend," white said. "Give Cal credit, they beat a very fast collegiate four."
Temple's Freshmen 4 of stroke Patrick Curran, Pat Welsh (3-seat), Tom Masterson (2-seat), Brendan Cunningham (bow), and Pat Ellis (coxswain) finished 12th overall at the championships while its Varsity 4 consisting of junior stroke Sam Cunningham, senior Timothy Malloy (3-seat), junior Bill Gennaro (2-seat) and junior Joseph Welsh (bow), placed 18th.
