SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York - The Marist Men's Rowing Team attended the Head of the Fish Regatta this past Saturday in Saratoga Springs NY. The regatta has historically been a fun end-of-fall event for teams in the Upstate New York and New England areas.The crews row across a fixed 3.1K distance on the Fish River in a "Head Race" or time trial format competing for the best time.

The Marist Men's Team entered 7 events with 32 rowers, 12 different crews, and 10 boats. When the team arrived at the race in the morning, the weather was very foggy and racing was delayed by over an hour for the fog to clear. As the day went on, the rowers enjoyed sunny weather and warm temperatures with strong winds building throughout the day from the south creating a head wind and tricky, choppy conditions on the race course.

The collegiate singles were the first to race with Marist entering two boats. Dan Aratto finished 5th with a time of 13:02.1 and Tom Basso finished in 13:48.5 to take 9th and winning a bronze medal as the 3rd place "B" entry.

Next came the open pair race where Marist again entered two crews. Ray Mattingly and Joe Kohn set a blistering pace and passed at least 4 crews on their way to a 10 second win in the event and a time of 12:49.07. the Red Foxes earned gold medals as well as one of the Head Of the Fish's coveted Fish Head trophies. Meanwhile, Chris Lazich and Tadd Bindas rowed the "B" entry to a solid fourth losing only to their team mates and crews from Union College and Blood Street Sculls Rowing Club and pacing a time of 13:27.13, in spite of running into some buoys on the course.

The Red Foxes next raced in the collegiate novice 8. This event, reserved for college freshman, has historically been a strong event for Marist and our very talented freshman boat were excited for an opportunity to go for a win. Owing to the difficulty with the weather delay, races were not being started in the proper order and the Marist boat ended up getting stuck behind a much slower boat in the early, narrow part, of the race course. As they tried to avoid this crew, Marist suffered a minor collision with a bridge and were forced off of the ideal racing path. Even with these events, the Red Foxes stormed down the course and took a convincing second place, less than 1 second off of the top time posted by Tufts, and earning silver medals.

For the next event, Marist had entered 3 lineups in the collegiate four. The top boat included members from our 1st varsity and 2nd varsity eights. With a long smooth rhythm the boat battled increasingly difficult conditions to take a 10 second lead in a deep field and win the event with a time of 11:51.8 and besting top crews from Rutgers, Fairfield, URI, and WPI. They earned gold medals and another Fish Head Trophy for their efforts. The 2nd entry containing many of our 2nd varsity rowers pulled a time of 13:06.7 to place 13th overall and earn bronze medals as the 3rd place "B" entry. Marist's "C" boat placed 26th with a time of 13:50.57 and beating 13 other crews from the total of 39 entries.

The Marist Team enjoyed a brief break before preparing to race in the 1st and 2nd varsity eights races. These are the marquee events where college's put their top crews. Marist placed 3rd in the V8 behind Columbia and WPI in 2016 and were excited for an opportunity to improve on that place. Meanwhile the second boat had placed 5th in 2016 and was hungry to see the medal stand.

In the varsity 8 event, Marist started behind WPI and had set the goal of passing them during the race. After a close race with Trinity last weekend at the Head of the Charles the boat knew they needed their best race to win the race. The Red Foxes committed to a long controlled rating and good rhythm and power passing WPI in the last 3rd of the race and claiming a 2 second victory over Trinity with a time of 11:08.9. They won gold medals, and yet another Fish Head trophy.

The 2nd Varsity 8 rowed a new line-up that had not long been developed after losing 5 members of the crew as graduating seniors in 2017. The boat showed strong promise however with a convincing 2nd place finish behind RIT and a time of 11:50.93 to win silver medals. Marist also entered a "B" entry in the 2nd V8 event who placed 14 of 23 crews and 4th place among the other "B" crews.

Marist next entered the collegiate novice four event. These boats are reserved for college freshman only and typically include many rowers who have never raced before. This was the first race as Red Foxes for the Marist crew and they put in a solid showing with a time of 14:53.1 and a 5th place finish out of 18 crews.

The final event of the day was an opportunity for the Marist coaching staff to stretch their legs after a long day. Coaches Rigothi, Wilson, and Woods were joined by rower Morgan Stippa in the open mixed quadruple sculls where they finished 2nd to an entry from Tufts to earn silver medals.

In total, the Red Foxes earned 3 firsts, 3 seconds and 2 thirds throughout the day.

"The team came to the Head of the Fish Regatta today knowing they were capable of a dominant performance and under significant pressure to post winning times. We are extremely pleased with the results. The crews at all levels on the team raced with power and composure and showed that they can perform well under pressure. We are excited to see what we can bring to the spring season." - Coach Campbell Woods.

The Head of the Fish marks the last race in the fall schedule for the Red Foxes. The crew will next be seen at their spring training trip in Clemson South Carolina where they will have the opportunity to race several teams from around the country.

The racing lineups for the team on Saturday were as follows:

Collegiate 1X
A- Dan Arrato
B- Tom Basso

Collegiate 2-
A- Ray Mattingly and Joe Kohn
B- Tadd Bindas and Chris Lazich

Collegiate Novice 8+
Sarah Blum, Dmitrey Guenther, Tom Nalis, Adam Byrdak, Kameryn Brown, Tommy Burda, Noah Baginski, Jake Brooks, and Chris Crawley

Collegiate 4+
A- Claire Connaly, Matt Blaszczyk, Dave Warner, Ryan Miller, and Tom Roach
B- Grace Heavey, Chris Rechen, Tim McQuade, Brandon Leyva, and Ryan Sullivan
C- Ari Streeter, Shane Manner, Ryan Parbs, Nick Olgee, and Christian McDermott

Collegiate 1V 8+
Ryan Lillis, Ray Mattingly, Joe Kohn, Matt Blaszczyk, Tadd Bindas, Morgan Stippa, Dave Warner, Chris Lazich, and Dan Arrato

Collegiate 2V8
A- Andrew Gaulin, Dmitrey Guenther, Tom Basso, Chris Rechen, Tom Nalis, Jake Brooks, Tim McQuade, Ryan Miller, and Tom Roach
B- Cole Federiconi, Shane Manner, Brandon Leyva, Christian McDermott, Kameryn Brown, Adam Byrdak, Noah Baginski, Nick Olgee, and Ryan Sullivan

Collegiate Novice 4+
Sarah Blum, Chris Crawley, Dillon Lusk, JC Fernandez, and Ian Soderlund