ATHOL — The River Rats are swarming to the Athol Daily News to sign up for the 55th Annual River Rat Race on Saturday. The count has climbed to 133 boats with paddlers hailing from New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and even Denver, Colo.
Among the latest signees are last year’s champions Trevor Lefever and Ben Schlimmer, both of Oneonta, N.Y. They’re back to attempt a fourth crown, having won the last two years in a row and also in 2014. Lefever also won first place in 2012 with paddling partner Matt Rudnitsky.
Rudnitsky has taken a total of five first place wins, with: Ryan Lyesiuk (in 2009), Andy Rudnitsky (2010), Marc Gillespie (2011), Trevor Lefever (2012) and Mike Schlimmer (2015).
It will be a battle to the finish, as always.
River Rat Race Director Dave Flint says the weather will be “65 degrees and sunny” and early predictions from local weather forecasters are not far off that mark.
Latest entries have been received from:
Dave Dugas and Kyle Smith, both of Orange; Mike Leonard and Sun Kim, both of Petersham; Martin Fontaine of Gardner and Bryan Coe Jr of Hampton, N.H.; Raymond Dexter of Winchendon and Austin Barnstein of Gardner; Steve Talbot of Athol and Bill Ellsworth of Orange; Shawn Thompson and Tom Smith, both of Athol; Lorell Trinby of and Kurt Trinby, both of North Brookfield; Joe Lukaszevicz of Plymouth and Pete Olson of Carver; Dennis Marcum of Walpole, N.H. and Gray Twombly of Alsted, N.H.; Larry Liquori of Kings Park, N.Y. and Ken Stoeb of Rochester, N.Y.; Travis Songer of Farmington and Mario Capolongo of Ware; Bill Brisbois and Bill Brisbois Jr., both of Marlboro; Travis Wheeler and Terese Wheeler, both of Clinton; John Marcoulier of Chestor and Nathan Gladu of Meriden, Conn.; Julie Marcoulier of Chester and Jessie Marcoulier Gladu of Meridan, Conn.; David Fromm of Longmeadow and Chris Weaver of Lenox; Patrick Donnelly of Longmeadow and Trisha Donnelly of Providence, R.I.; “Dashing” Dave Ambrose and Mike Leedberg, both of Dunstable; Alison Donnelly of and Austin Siceva, both of Longmeadow; Jennifer Kovacevic and Janeen Kovacevic, both of North Attleboro; David Riley of Burlington and Chip Brown of Sterling; Andrew Ellis and Ian Sisson, both of Athol; Corey Dumais of Pelham, N.H. and Mark Dumais of Salem, N.H.; Trevor Lefever and Ben Schlimmer, bothof Oneonta, NY; Mike Anderson and Cameron Coych, both of Winchendon; Andy Brooks Jr. and Joshua Cyganiewicz, both of Winchendon; Neil Wheeler of Goshen and Skip Tobin of Ipswitch; Paul Dyka of Middletown, Conn. and Del Cummings of Meriden, Conn.; Tom Hammond of Sterling and Jeff Hammond of Fairfield, Conn.; Dennis Carey of Orange and Dale Persons of Bainbridge, N.Y.; Leah Baxter and Chuck Baxter, both of Athol; Linde Chaplin of Orange and Siobhan Nolan of Denver, Colo.
Applications will be accepted from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. at the Athol Daily News through Friday, with extended hours on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Entries will be accepted up to the start of the race. Applications coming in after the post-position drawing on Friday night (starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Athol Town Hall) will be positioned at the end of the pack.