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Plant's Rowers Start Strong

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 3, 2007

TAMPA - Plant made a strong opening statement at the Halloween Regatta, finishing with 200 points and wins in the four main races.

The regatta was a preparation for the Panthers squad, which is in Chattanooga, Tenn., for today's Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta, where they will face some of the strongest squads in the country. Plant coach Matt Abel thinks the regatta is important for two reasons.

"One is the level of competition is very, very high," he said. "There are some of the top boats from the country, not just the southeast, will be at this regatta. It's really a good test of where you stand at this point in the nation, not just in the southeast region or Florida.

"The other part of it is for our novice, our new rower's, it gives them exposure to the sport in all its grandeur. There's only a couple of regattas in the fall that are as big as the Chattahoochee, with as many boats from as many places around the country. While we could stay in Florida and close to home and race, and there's advantages to staying close to home, but there's also advantages to your novice rowers traveling to see what's out there."

The Panthers were led by the boy's varsity 8, who completed the 3200-meter course at the Bypass Canal in 11 minutes, 25 seconds. The crew of Chris Halpern, Ryan Carley, Alex Tanner, Connor Howlett, Michael Pittman, Tyler Blume, Marty McGowan, Oliver Mount and cox Jennah Blau finished 41 seconds ahead of Hillsborough.

Halpern, Blume and Carley were joined by Andrew Jacobson and cox Carly Heitlinger in the varsity 4, and the Panthers crew won in 12:37, beating Hillsborough and Tampa Prep, which came in tied for second at 13:10.

The Panthers also won the boy's novice 8 and novice 4, and got a strong performance out of their second varsity 8, which tied Hillsborough's time of 12:06. Abel, who oversees the boy's crews, was pleased.

"I was happy with all of the performances of our crews," Abel said. "The fact that our second varsity went as fast as other team's varsity 8 was particularly encouraging. It's important for the program that the second varsity be a competitive crew, and they showed that on Saturday."

The Panthers girls also performed well, winning the varsity 8 and varsity 4 comfortably, with both squads being led by U.S. Junior National team member Molly Hamrick. Plant coach Sky Elliott, who oversees the girl's boats, was pleased with the way the team executed.

"I thought the crew, for the most part, rowed to the best of their ability," Elliott said. "What our boats try to focus on is making sure our boats go out and perform their best practice that they've had on the water in a race. So if they win or they lose, that's great, but really the test is whether they perform the best piece we've seen them perform in practice, and whether they performed to the best of their ability."

Hillsborough's squad will also be going to Chattanooga, and Coach Mike Smith thinks his team has some things they could improve on.

"We certainly need to look at building some muscle and some power," Smith said. "We looked at some of our catches and finishes, and we think we might need to adjust the rigging a little bit to locate our arcs and lengthen out our catches. Technique-wise we just need to get our timing and our steps more together.

"We love going up there," Smith said. "It's a great opportunity to go out and get some races from other crews from the region, not just Florida crews. It's a big venue, a lot of fun. We look at it as a building experience to get the teams really enthused about racing and about each other, traveling together."

Heusler Takes 3rd At National Championships

Ian Heusler of Plant High finished third at the Interscholastic Sailing Association single-handed national championships in Seattle last weekend, finishing with 113 points after the 18-race regatta.

After getting 10th in the opening race of the regatta, Heausler posted back-to-back wins and a fourth place to put him in first, a position he held until finishes of ninth, 12th and eighth in races 8, 9 and 10 brought him back to the pack.

Heusler stayed in contention, but was unable to pick up any other wins in the remaining eight races, and finishes of 14th in the 16th race and 12th in the 17th pushed him out of contention.

Chris Barnard of Newport Harbor won the event with 81 points, while Mateo Vargas of Lakewood was second with 96.

Riverview/Durant Jumps Freedom With Win

Riverview goaltender Justin Matas recorded a shutout as Riverview/Durant leapfrogged over Freedom into a tie for second place in the Hillsborough High School Hockey League with a 3-0 win.

The combined team is tied with the Tigers, with both teams trailing Newsome Blue by three points. Tanner Jarrett, Cody O'Conner and Stephen Guerre scored to hand Freedom its second loss of the season and hinder the Patriots' opportunity to gain ground on the idle Wolves.

Wesley Chapel also recorded a 6-0 win with Ryan Zakarian keeping Wharton scoreless. Nate Gotschall and Chris Lifrieri each scored twice as Wesley Chapel jumped up to fifth.

Jenkins got a pair of goals from Zach Harvard to lead the Eagles to a 5-3 win against Plant. Jason Jensen, Kevin Wagner and Shane Reger also found the net for the Eagles. The Panthers got another pair of goals from C.W. Guyer, giving him six this season, but they were unable to secure their first win of the season.

For more youth sports news and notes, go to TBO.com keyword: Youth sports Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached nmurray@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8243.

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