The Drexel University men’s and women’s crew teams hosted the 53rd annual Kerr Cup Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia April 20. Boats competed in heats and then finals for their respective events. The Dragons took home four gold medals — the men’s and women’s teams each had two. Overall, the Dragons had 11 top-three finishes. The women’s team took home their seventh Kerr Cup in the past 10 years under head coach Paul Savell, and it was their 13th Kerr Cup for the program. The men’s team finished second behind Yale University.
The men’s and women’s freshman fours finished first and second, respectively, in their heats, which moved them into the grand finals later that day. The varsity fours each won their heats as well. The women’s varsity four had the second fastest time in the heats while the men’s varsity four had the fastest time heading into the finals.
The women’s freshman four placed second overall in their category to Lafayette College. The men’s freshman four won their event by finishing nine seconds ahead of Colgate University. In the final for the women’s varsity four, the Dragons placed second behind Lafayette by less than two seconds, and the men placed third behind Lafayette and Fordham University.
The women’s second varsity eight placed first in their heat ahead of George Mason University by just over 26 seconds. The men’s second varsity eight also placed first in their heat. The varsity eights then competed. The women’s varsity eight won their heat with the fastest time heading into the finals. The men’s varsity eight also won their heat but had the second fastest time behind Yale.
The men’s team also had a third varsity eight and freshman eight competing in the finals. The third varsity eight competed against Yale, Saint Joseph’s University, Bucknell University, Temple University and La Salle University. The Dragons placed second to Yale. In the freshman eight race, the men came in first by almost 10 seconds ahead of two boats from the United States Military Academy.
In the varsity eight finals for the women’s team, the Dragons were unstoppable. The second varsity eight raced in their final first and had a good lead over Temple after the first 500 meters. They stayed ahead of Temple and won the final by open water on the rest of the field. For the varsity eight, the Dragons were neck-and-neck with Temple at the start, but quickly rowed ahead leaving Temple behind at the 1000-meter mark. The Dragons had a strong finish as they won with a time of 6:37.90 ahead of Temple’s 6:45.87.
For the men’s team, both the first and second varsity eights lost to Yale. In the second varsity eight final, the men battled St. Joseph’s University and the University of California San Diego for the second place spot and ended up coming in ahead of St. Joe’s by five seconds. In the varsity eight final, the men also beat St. Joe’s to take second place by two seconds.
For their efforts, the women’s varsity eight earned their second Colonial Athletic Association Boat of the Week honors this season, and for her leadership, senior Amanda Reale, bow seat of the women’s varsity eight, was also awarded the Drexel School of Education Athlete of the Week honor.
The women’s team will now look ahead to compete for the Kelly Cup while the men’s team will compete for the Bergen Cup April 27. The women’s team will be going for their eighth straight Kelly Cup win. The Bergen and Kelly Cup regatta will be hosted on the Schuylkill river by St. Joe’s. At the conclusion of racing, the results will be available on row2k.