During the weekend of April 12-13, the Case Western Reserve University club crew teams traveled to Cherry Hill, New Jersey to compete in the 2025 Knecht Cup. The teams entered a total of eight entries across their men’s and women’s novice and varsity crews and returned with two third-place finishes for their varsity 4+ crews.  

In a joint response from the two teams’ coaches, Katie Tolles and Nathaniel Shoemaker, they described the preparation leading into the competition.  

“To prepare for spring racing we simulate race pieces on the Cuyahoga River where we row in downtown Cleveland. There are straight-stretches of our river where we are able to put our boats side-by-side and simulate parts of the race. Additionally, we have indoor training on rowing machines and set lifting circuits which helps to maintain fitness of our athletes,” they said. 

Their training proved to be effective as all of CWRU’s entries made it to day two of competition following the preliminary races held on day one. 

In the novice races, the women’s 4+ crew of first-years Anne Marie Begola, Adeline Laster, Anlin Wei and Chloe Ng, coxed by second-year Misiki Baruah, finished 5th in the Petite Finals while the women’s 8+ crew of Begola, Laster, Wei, Ng and first-years Arya Srivastava, Valentina La Marca, Genevieve Suorsa, Ivy Chen with Baruah as coxswain placed 6th in the Grand Finals behind Drexel University. Laster commented on her favorite part of the races. 

“The best part of the 2000 meter race is the final 500. Everyone in the boat is cooked, you are at the breaking point, and yet, when you hear your coxswain call the final sprint, you feel the boat start flying! You and your fellow rowers press with everything they have left. You can feel the lactic acid in your legs and push through the pain. What’s especially invigorating is when you catch up to the boat in front of you and just barely cross the finish line before them. The coxswain then calls to “way enough” and there is a good 5 minutes where no one can speak a word and we struggle to catch our breaths. We left it all out on the course and paddle slowly back to the docks. This final 500 is the adrenaline rush that makes me get in the boat every race,” she said.

Both the men’s 4+ crew of first-years Xavier Choe, Colin Blair, Miles Ehrbar and Argeles Samuel, coxed by Juliene Jones and the 8+ crew of Choe, Samuel,  third-year’s Ryan Hari and Ruben Beneitez, first-year’s Farouk Fofana, Calais Michaelsson and Kai Figureroa along with Blair, coxed by Jones placed 4th. The men’s 4+ crew were only 1.57 seconds from medalling, crossing the finish line behind Lafayette College. 

Choe described the challenges the team faced at the regatta. 

“A multi-day regatta like the Knecht Cup is an exhausting affair. In addition to rigging and derigging boats, loading and unloading the trailer, and the long drive to and from Cherry Hill, NJ, some of our team members raced as many as four times. Ask any rower and they’ll tell you: to push yourself to the brink of collapse—trying to squeeze every ounce of strength and speed from your legs—multiple times in one weekend is an immense challenge, both physically and mentally,” he said. 

Furthermore, the weather was another obstacle the crews faced as they raced down the course. 

“The conditions were not the best for rowing as it was rainy and cold. The wind was really strong which made it quite difficult for the coxswains to steer. Even then, they did a great job and we did so well in the race thanks to them. Even in bad weather like this we all have to push through and give our all. Training in Cleveland prepares us for bad weather races like these,” Laster commented. 

At the varsity level, the women’s 8+ crew and men’s 8+ crew both came in 4th in the Petite Finals. The women’s team consisted of second-year Sadie Belding, graduate student Emma Joseph, second-year Anna Falcone, third-year Quinn Watercutter, second-year Euphemia Skinner, Elena Thomas, first-year Samantha Hopper, second-year Sophie Scherer and second-year coxswain Jessica Van Horne, while the men’s team consisted of fourth-years Carlos Blanes and Davis Kraus, third-year’s Thomas Murphy, Grant Williams, Mose Langway, Samuel Diener and Abhivira Akshay Singh, second-year Eli Krop-Siegmund and third-year coxswain Marko Enriquez. The women’s team and men’s team finished the race in 7:50.41 and 6:38.96, respectively. 

“I loved the intense competition at this regatta! This was my first regatta with 50+ teams and it was a really cool experience. Seeing our boats on the big screen with an announcer and tons of spectators was incredible, and it was even cooler seeing us do well!” Scherer said. 

The most impressive finishes from the team came from both of the 4+ varsity crews which took home two bronze medals. The women’s lineup of Belding in Stroke, Watercutter, Falcone and Scherer with third-year Caroline Kier as coxswain finished behind Gordon College and Washington College with a time of 8:40.16. The men’s team of Blanes in Stroke, Murphy, Williams and Kraus with third-year Shae Jenkins as coxswain completed the race behind Washington College and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy with a time of 7:11.21.

“My absolute favorite part of the competition is winning medals. I haven’t done another sport that has the same feeling of winning. I think it has something to do with the fact that the rowers face backwards in a shell, and so you get to watch your boat walk away from all the other crews. And every crew member gets their own medal to show for their work, but at the same time we win as one,” said Kraus. 

This coming weekend, the team will be heading to Virginia to participate in the Mid Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships, where they will face opponents such as Carnegie Mellon University and John Carroll University. 

“Individually, it’s my last race as a Case Western Reserve rower and I want to end on a high note. Not only do I want to win all of my events and take home that gold medal. I want to walk away from the dock feeling like we left nothing on the table and really gave it our all to row the best damn race we could’ve. I’ve won races before where the whole crew felt like something was off about the boat, and that there was still more to give. I don’t want [that] for my last race.” Kraus said. “As for the whole team. I think we’re all expecting to try and clean sweep this regatta. We want to medal in, if not take the gold in every event. And I think we can do it.”