April 28, 2007

YORK, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's men's' and women's eight-oared crews wrapped up their inaugural varsity season at the 10th Annual Mid-Atlantic Division III championships at Gifford Pinchot State Park, just outside of York, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The Diplomat women's eight of Abigale Zoltick, Chelsea McIntyre, Sarah Clark, Erin Bradley, Alexandra Merrick, Laura Abernathy, Rebecca Weast, stroke Allie Noll and coxswain Mary Emert finished fifth of six crews. The Diplomats trailed for most of the race but finished valiantly, edging ahead of Marietta College to grab the fifth position.

The University of Mary Washington won the women's event in 7.00 .2 followed by Washington College in 7.02.01, North Park University in 7.14.41, Bryn Mawr in 7.28.62, F&M in 7.45.77 and Marietta in 7.46.92.

The men's varsity eight finished second of two entries with a time of 7.00.93 seconds. The event was won by Johns Hopkins University, who raced the 2000-meter course in 6.38.4.

The Diplomat crew, from bow to coxswain was comprised of Hormuz Masani, Andrew Olen, Mike Arnold, Jared Ursani, Aaron Hodes, Daniel Falciani, Jason Blevins, stroke Ron Nahass and Joseph Dernbach.

The overall women's points trophy was won by Washington College while Johns Hopkins University won the men's overall point trophy.

Laura Abernathy'07 and Erin Bradley'08 were named to the All-Regional Varsity Team and freshman Alexandra Merrick was named to the All-Regional Freshman squad.

On the men's side, Ron Nahass '08 and Jason Blevins '08 were named to the All-Regional Varsity team and Daniel Falciani was named to the All Regional Freshman Team.