CHERRY HILL, New Jersey - The Marist Men's Rowing Team competed this past weekend in their conference championship at the Dad Vail Regatta in Cherry Hill NJ. The team was entered in 4 categories with 5 different crews. Racing took place over 2 days with the first day incorporating a Time Trial and Semi Final Race and Saturday having finals. The Team faced a wide variety of other crews in each category with most coming from the 19 major Division 1 programs at the Regatta. Racing took place over a 2000m course on the Cooper River hosted at the Cooper River Park in Cherry Hill NJ just outside of Philadelphia.
The V2X consisted of
Carter Brandel (stroke) and
Alexander Bitton (bow). In the Time Trial event, the Marist 2x placed 4
th of 10 crews in a time of 6:55.7. This placed them in the afternoon Semi Final against crew from Brock, William and Mary, Clemson, Drexel, and LIU. Marist placed 4
th in this race with a time of 7:42.0 to progress to the petite final on Saturday. Unfortunately, the crew did not race their final as the crew was withdrawn due to schedule changes and poor weather predictions.
The 4V8 consisted of Evie Disque (cox),
Evan Brown (stroke),
Ethan King (7), Joe Kraus (6),
Austin Thomas (5),
Thomas Superchi (4),
Caden Todd (3),
Jack Taddei (2), and
Julius Stratton (bow). The 4V8 raced alongside the Marist 3V8 as a B entry in the 4V8 category. In the time trial the Marist placed 9
th of 9 Crews in a time of 6:09.2 This placed them in an afternoon Semi Final against Drexel, La Salle and St Joes. Marist placed 4
th in this race with a time of 6:34.2. On Saturday Marist was scheduled to compete in the Petite Final for their race but unfortunately, the crew did not race their final as the crew was withdrawn due to schedule changes and poor weather predictions.
The 3V8 consisted of
Sam Carine (cox),
Jackson Bower (stroke), Zak Schwarz (7),
Dylan Kresge (6),
Peter Martinich (5),
Dante Karaiskos(4),
Mark Carguello (3),
Connor Tandy (2), and
Drew Ngo (bow). The 3V8 placed of 3
rd of 9 crews in the Time Trial with a time of 5:52.4. This placed the crew in an afternoon semi final against Santa Clara, Temple, and Jacksonville where Marist placed 2
nd to progress to the Grand Final in a time of 6:12.3. In the grand Final on Saturday Marist faced Drexel, Santa Clara, La Salle, St Joes, and Temple. During this race Drexel took a commanding lead and Santa Clara and La Salle had a good dual with Marist in hot pursuit only 2 or 3 seats back for most of the early part of the race. In the 2
nd half of the race, Santa Clara and LaSalle continued to pull ahead with Marist only a boat length back. It appeared that Marist would place a decisive 4
th place but one of the athletes caught a crab in the closing meters of the race and was ejected completely from the boat. This allowed St Joes to just barely pass Marist at the finish line. Marist officially took 5
th in a time of 6:23.1.
The 2V8 consisted of
Liam Ventresca (cox),
Ian Sondhof (stroke),
James Hadjandreas (7),
Nolan Libby (6),
Matthew Roscoe (5), Finn Lyons (4),
Jesse Hinkle (3),
Matthias Topping (2) and
Dane Valenti (bow). In the time trial the 2V8 placed 6
th of 15 crews in a time of 5:44.9. This placed the crew in an afternoon semi final against Temple, LaSalle, MIT, Marietta, and St Joes. Marist Placed 3
rd in this race with a time of 5:58.3 to progress to the Grand Final where they faced Drexel, Temple, La Salle, Santa Clara, and Gonzaga. During this race Drexel, Temple, and LaSalle moved away early to battle for the top finishes while Marist got into a strong dual with Santa Clara. Marist closed the Margin to SC but was unable to pip them at the finish line and eventually placed 5
th by just a seat or two to Santa Clara and defeating Gonzaga in a time of 6:02.8.
The V8 consisted of
Tessa Kurtzman (cox), Will Shockley (stroke),
Ryan Tuttle (7),
Charlie Latimer (6), Reed Livingston (5),
Kevin Murray (4),
Nicholas Scarano (3),
Tristan Wistuba (2), and Holden Kopscik (bow). The V8 placed 5
th of 19 crews in the TT event in a time of 5:34.3. This set the crew up for a semi final against Temple, MIT, Colgate, Santa Clara, and USD. In the Semi Final Marist placed a close 4
th to Colgate in a time of 5:44.0. This result placed Marist in the Petite Final on Saturday against St Joes, Santa Clara, USD, Loyola and Jacksonville. Here Marist placed 4
th ahead of Loyola and Jacksonville in a time of 5:56.2.
This year's Dad Vail Regatta showed a marked increase in activity from last spring with the boats from several other conferences joining the event for the first time and expanding the D1 Varsity Field from 10 to 19 crews. Marist entered the event ranked 23rd in the Nation in recent polling and a hopeful for an IRA AQ which went to the top 4 finishers in the V8 category. In failing to reach the grand final, Marist was automatically relegated from that opportunity. The crew and coaches are disappointed at having failed to deliver on this potential but are pleased with the exceptional overall regular season that we put together in 2026 with a young (mostly freshman and sophomore) crew. We are excited to see what improvements we can make in the off season and come back strong and ready to compete in the fall. Special thanks to all our parents and alumni who turned out to support! GO RED FOXES!!! - Campbell Woods, Head Coach Marist Men's Rowing Team
More Details about the event and a full coach's debrief video can be found on our website here
https://rowmarist.com/coachs-communication/marist-the-2026-jefferson-dad-vail-regatta
What's Next:
Marist will be training and sending a coxed four to the IRA National Championship Regatta which takes place on Lake Natoma in Folsom California at the end of May
