Oct. 24, 2004

BOSTON - The Saint Joseph's men's rowing team served notice that it would be the front runner for the Dad Vail title with an impressive effort at the Head of the Charles Regatta on Sunday. The SJU Men's Collegiate 8 finished 3rd in a field of 45 at the prestigious event.

The crew, which contained no seniors, included junior Sean O'Hara (bow), 2- junior Mike Leahy, freshman Gavin Adams, junior Justin Jones, sophomore Dan Lachant, sophomore Adrian Gherca, sophoimore Alex DiBiasi, junior Devlin Murdock (stroke) and coxswain junior John Hayes. The team rowed an outstanding first half of the race before being blocked by the Coast Guard Academy crew that started in front of them for the second half of the race.

By finishing 3rd, SJU beat boats from sprint schools Harvard (2 boats) and MIT, Canadian Colleges McGill, Brock and Queens, as well as Dad Vail competitors Minnesota, FIT, Lehigh, Hobart, Army, Boston College and Holy Cross. The Hawks finished behind only Trinity, which rowed an outstanding race, and last year's winner from Denmark, Minerva.

The Hawks should continue to show significant improvement as the team's three captains are inserted into the first boat this week. Even better results are expected this week at the Head of the Schuylkill with the goal of getting the team's line-up set for the Princeton Chase in two weeks.