Brunswick School junior George Kapp earned a bronze medal in the Varsity Single race at the highly competitive Mercer Sprints recently in New Jersey.

The field was 38 scullers deep, including Bruins junior Quinn Evans, who finished in 20th place in the morning Trial race. The top seven moved on to the A Final. Kapp was fourth in the Time Trial, putting him in Lane 6 for the afternoon final.

Each of the scullers in the finals had to battle through very strong cross winds from the port side, especially in the middle 1000-meter of the 2000-meter course. Both of the other two medalists in the Varsity 1x event, from Potomac Boat Club and Cambridge Boat Club respectively, were also medalists at this fall’s Head of the Charles Regatta in sculling events, where Kapp stroked Brunswick’s coxed four to a win.

The Mercer Sprints event was the debut for Kapp, who is still 16, to the U19 category where he will race for the next two years.

Additionally, Brunswick’s Rhodes Pollack, a sophomore and Phil Martone, also a sophomore, in their first-ever race in the pair, had the seventh fastest time in a field of 18 Varsity Pairs.

Also recently, Brunswick earned the Richard Curtis Trophy back from Salisbury with a come-from-behind win in the Varsity Eights competition. The Knights got out to an early lead, but never broke free of the Bruins who stayed relaxed and reeled in their opponents during the second half of the race.

While Salisbury had almost three-quarters of a boat length approaching the halfway mark, Brunswick was able to pull through and win by a full boat length. Brunswick clocked in at a time of 4:38.4, with Salisbury crossing the finish line in 4:41.8.

Established in 2006, the Curtis Trophy has changed hands ten times between the two schools already in these past twenty years. Brunswick now holds a ten to nine advantage in terms of all-time trophy wins.

Brunswick also won the 3rd and 4th Eights, but dropped the 2nd Eights race. Salisbury’s 2nd Eight got out to a fast start and were too much for the Bruins. The script was flipped in both the 3rd and 4th Eights as Brunswick led both races wire to wire for open water wins.