Brotherly Love:  Merion Mercy Brings Henley Gold Back To Boathouse Row

Henley-on-Thames, England — Rounding the course at Llanarch Country Club in the Philadelphia suburbs on Memorial Day weekend, Sister Barbara Buckley received a text message.

“We just won the national championship,” said the text from Merion Mercy head crew coach Mike Brown.

“Congratulations,” responded Sr. Barb, as the Merion principle is known, “Henley?”

“As long as we have permission,” Brown answered.

And that was ultimately how MMA's girl’s varsity four booked its ticket to the Women’s Henley Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England.

On Sunday, what started with a simple text message, ended in memories of a lifetime for a crew program born only in 2005.  The Merion Mercy crew of coxswain Maddie Ratfield, stroke seat Amanda Lorei, two seat Elissa Jensen, three seat Emily Buongiorno and four seat Sara Romano notched two wins over international crews from England and Ireland to capture the Groton School Challenge Cup.

“These kids realized that this will be forever,” said head coach Mike Brown, who started the program 

Brown said that that was ultimately the biggest hurdle to clear — overcoming the gravity of the moment.  Merion did exactly that in becoming the first American crew to win the Groton Cup since 2003.

Brown said the biggest hurdle was the realization that winning was something that would stay with them forever.  

“I think we were all very nervous, more so in the first couple races,” Lorei said.  “We had absolutely no idea what to expect.  We didn’t know how fast the British boats and how fast the other boats were in general.”

In the finals, Merion defeated Lady Eleanor Holles, the British champion, by 2 1/2 lengths.  In the semifinals just two hours beforehand, the crew rowed past a combined boat from Northern Ireland made up of some national team members from Methodist College and Portora College by two lengths.

In a dominant showing, Merion never trailed in any of its four races at Henley.  Those performances would have been bittersweet had the team not returned stateside with gold. 

But it wouldn’t come to that.

“At the start of winter workouts, Coach Brown gave us a Gaelic saying, ‘The day will come,’" said Elissa Jensen.  “Today was our day."

STORY & PHOTO: Brendan F. Quinn

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