Three Belen Jesuit Prep crews traveled to New Jersey to compete at the 75th Annual Scholastic National Rowing Championships and all three entries the Freshman Eight, Lightweight Eight, and Junior Eight advanced to the semifinals.  On the second day of racing, Belen’s Freshman and Junior Crews turned in Silver medal performances, and Belen’s young Lightweight Eight with one Senior, one Junior, and six Sophomore rowers was ninth fastest in their category.

The event was held at Mercer Lake in Princeton, NJ site of the 2008 Olympic Trials.  A total of 120 high school programs from throughout the East Coast and Midwestern states competed for gold, silver, and bronze medals in twelve events per gender.  Robert Weller, Kevin Lowenhaupt, Fernando Ruiz, Juan Avila, Julian Mazaira, Alex Jasman, Joshua Muñoz,  Jordan Llano and coxswain Gregory Santos with alternates Eddy Cosio & MJ Verdeja ; Belen’s Freshman Eight that had not lost a race all year finished two seconds behind gold medal winner St. Joseph’s Prep.  A half hour later Belen’s Junior Eight with Victor Garcia, Carlos Fernandez, Chris Hernandez, Victor DeZarraga,  Nicholas Tomasino, Jose Avila, Jorge Ginory-Perez,  Alex Olesen, and coxswain Pablo Rodriguez-Cepero finished 4.21 seconds behind the St. Joseph’s Prep Crew and 3.9 seconds ahead of the bronze medal winner Plant High School from Tampa.  Belen's Wolverine Crew is coached by Dawn Scott Viyella and Edgardo Carranza.

Freshmen Eight at Nationals	Lightweight Eight at Nationals	Junior Eight at Nationals

For official results of all flights please go to:

http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=209

Note: The rowers from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School competed in events 27, 44, 88, 118, 126, 135, 157, and 163.

 Congratulations to Dawn, Edgardo, the lightweight 8 and Freshman 4 for their victories at STATES!! Special congratulations to, Jordan Llano, Julian Mazaira, Alex Jasmin, Josh Munoz, Kevin Lowenhaupt, Bobby Weller, Eddy Cosio, MJ Verdeja and Greg Santos the, Freshman 8 who brought home the third CONSECUTIVE Gold Medal for Belen Crew in their category. They join the ranks of the 2007 and 2008 Freshman 8 who made this unprecedented record possible. 

If you would like a copy of the year end video please contact Alina Hernandez. If you would like to view it now online it is posted at: http://web.me.com/mikeverdeja/Mike_Verdeja/Belen_Crew.html.

LINK HAS BEEN UPDATED

It's a very large file so it will take sometime to upload before you can start viewing.

Dear Parents,

What a trip! Spring break was gorgeous,cold, hysterical, calming, tiring and so much more. Thanks for giving your boys the opportunity to make the trip.

Special thanks to the chaperons, who did the hard work during the week. Jorge, Rebecca, Carmen, Mario, Natalia and Ramon kept us well fed and on schedule.

Thanks to the Gonzalez family for opening up their home to the team on Wednesday evening. We had a wonderful time. 

Thanks to Jeff Montes for taking a week out of his life to coach, again.

I am sure you will all continue to hear the stories for years to come.

I am so blessed to be the coach of this team!

Thanks,

Dawn

 New Sprints League Photos have been added. Click on PHOTOS link on the left to view.