Pioneer Navy takes 16th in Freshmen/Novice 4+ at IRA Regatta
Marietta places fourth in third-level final on Cooper River

June 7, 2008
CHERRY HILL, N.J. — While the majority of the Marietta College men’s rowing program disbanded for the summer, five freshmen members of the crew remained on campus for a few weeks to continue their training before closing out the season at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Regatta, which took place June 5-7 on the Cooper River.

Head Coach Chris Pucella’s Pioneer Navy entered a Freshmen/Novice 4+ shell, which featured stroke Niklas Von Kuczkowski (Hanover, Germany/Culver Military Academy), Zach McGurk (Alexandria, Va./Bishop O'Connell), Devin Turley (Herdon, Va./Westfield), bow Stephen Baranoski (Meriden, Conn./Xavier) and coxswain Thomas Dougherty (Lansdowne, Pa./Monsignor Bonner), into the field of 21 boats.

The competition began on Thursday (June 5) with a time-trial. The top 12 boats advanced to one of the top two semifinals, while the remaining nine boats moved onto the two second-level semifinals. Marietta (6:06.098) rowed a solid race, finishing just six seconds off the fifth place boat, but came in 13th place.

Despite the disappointment of not making one of the top semifinals, Marietta took care of business in its semifinal on Friday (June 6). The Pioneers (6:57.202) defeated four other crews to advance to the third-level final. The U.S. Naval Academy (7:01.533) and Brown (7:07.700) were Marietta’s closest competitors in the semifinal.

On Saturday (June 7), Marietta got off to a slow start in the third-level final. The Pioneers fought hard to get back in the race but crossed the line in fourth place with a time of 6:56.395 and placed 16th overall. Delaware (6:48.658) won the third-level final, while Syracuse (6:52.455) and Brown (6:52.455) also finished ahead of Marietta. Washington won the overall competition with a 6:25.931 finish in the Grand Final.