June 1, 2007

CAMDEN, NJ - The Temple men's crew team took to the Cooper River Thursday for the start of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Collegiate Rowing Championships. The Owls had an impressive day in their final regatta of the season, placing its varsity pair into the grand final and two other crews advancing to the semifinal round.

Junior James Harding and senior Peter Gostling won their heat over Georgia Tech, Buffalo, Minnesota,Princeton to advance to Saturday's grand final. Winners of the other pair heats were Wisconsin and Yale.

In the men's Varsity 4 with coxswain, IRA officials, for the first time ever, used a single-file time trial to select the top 12 crews (out of a field of 34). Temple, the defending bronze medalists, took first place overall and are the top-ranked crew going into Friday's semifinals. The Owls crew of junior stroke Thomas Haubrich, junior Robert Protesto (3-seat), senior Dante Cammarata (2-seat), junior Nicholas Vlahos (bow) and junior Rory Roberts (coxswain) bested second place Brown with Puget Sound, Gonzaga and MIT, placing third through fifth, respectively.

Temple also qualified its Freshmen 4 into the semifinal round tomorrow. Rowing to a second place finish in the qualifier were stroke Patrick Curran, Pat Welsh (3-seat), Tom Masterson (2-seat), Brendan Cunningham (bow), and Pat Ellis (coxswain).

Attempting to qualify through the repechage heats Friday will be the Temple Varsity 4 consisting of junior stroke Sam Cunningham, senior Timothy Malloy (3-seat), junior Bill Gennaro (2-seat) and junior Joseph Welsh (bow).