Now that the dust has settled on the 85th annual St. Peter's Fiesta sporting events, it's time to reflect on just how good they all turned out.
From Wednesday through Sunday the Fiesta sporting events delivered a little bit of everything from drama, to upsets to incredible individual performances. There were countless highlights from the weekend but here's a look at the best of the best.
Stealing the show this Fiesta sports season was Sunday's senior seine boat final, a race that turned out to be one of if not the closest in the sports history.
The race pitted three elite crews in Kaos, the three time defending champs looking to become the second mens crew to win four in a row; Closing Time, Saturday's winner, and the Wharf Rats, Saturday's runner up.
Once the race started the results were nothing short of spectacular. All three crews were pretty much neck and neck the entire way out to the flag with the Wharf Rats taking a lead after the turn, a lead they would hold most of the way home.
Closing Time, however, put together one of the most furious finishes in recent memory picking up the pace during the races stretch run and surpassing the Wharf Rats by about a seat to take home the title. Kaos, the third place finisher, was never down by more than half a boat the entire race.
It's always great seeing three great crews go after it on Fiesta Sunday, but seeing three great crews rise to the occasion the way Closing Time, Wharf Rats and Kaos did is something nobody on Pavilion Beach Sunday will soon forget.
Sunday's senior men's seine boat race wasn't the only fantastic finish of the weekend. Peter Asaro and Andrew Ryan, a pair of GHS and College of William and Mary track stars put on a splendid performance in the Fiesta 5K Road Race with Asaro edging Ryan by just three seconds in an incredible kick to the finish line.
Junior seine boat champion Rising Tide also defended its title in dramatic fashion edging The Neighborhood in a tight two boat race.
This year's St. Peter's Fiesta sporting events also brought us some big time performances from greasy pole walkers and rowers looking to make history.
Now six time greasy pole champ Stew McGillivray continues to wow spectators with his uncanny ability to tackle the 40 foot greased telephone pole. This year McGillivray delivered a jaw dropping walk stumbling multiple times only to regain his balance where most would fall to take his fourth Sunday flag in the last five years.
Women's seine boat champion Oar'Dacious cemented its place as the most dominant women's crew of all time and maybe even the most dominant seine boat crew off all time taking its fourth straight title and sixth out of the last seven years. Oar'Dacious was pushed in 2012, but still managed to win by two boat lengths and will enter 2013 as the overwhelming favorite once again in attempting to become the first seine boat crew to take five straight titles.
This year also saw a few long time Fiesta athletes break through and take home the big prize. Saturday greasy pole champion Nick Avelis, a veteran walker of more than a decade, took down his first flag in official competition (he also won the fall classic this November at Newell Stadium) while veteran rower John Scola picked up his first seine boat title in 30 years of rowing with Closing Time and coxswain Mike Jarvis, known as one of the best rowers in the city dories and seine boats for the last two decades, picked up his first title.
What a weekend it was, and if the 2013 St. Peter's Fiesta Sporting events turn out half as good as this year's events, we are in for another thrilling ride.
