Elina Huffman ‘29
Staff Writer
The largest rowing competition in the world will embark on the Charles River. The Head of the Charles Regatta will take place on the Charles River in Boston, MA, Oct. 16-18. The race is about 4,800 meters, or about 3 miles, with close to 12,000 athletes competing. The first regatta was held in October 1965—this year will be the 61st anniversary. There are 74 different events for rowers to take part in. The Holy Cross Women’s and Men’s Rowing teams will take part in this epic meet! However, in the fall the women will compete at a club level and the men will compete at collegiate level.
This year the women are rowing on Saturday, Oct. 17. This is going to be their second race of the year after they competed in Head of the Riverfront. At that regatta, the women did amazing! They had three different boats racing: an eight, a double and a four. The eight person boat placed second overall. The stoke seat was sophomore, Biance Hajer, and she kept her teammates on a great pace, with their finish time being 14:49. They also kept a 10 second lead from third place. The other boat in this race got eighth place, and the stroke seat was senior, Maeve Dowd. All of the doubles boats placed really well. They placed fifth, tenth and thirteenth. One of the rowers was Hajer, and she and her partner both pulled off a time of 18:16. The other doubles boat finished with a time of 19:26, and one of the rowers was Dowd. The last boat had a final time of 20:58, and this boat was led by senior Helena Schmitt. This was a tremendous performance from all of the boats! They went against some very competitive teams and they held their own very well. Holy Cross also had three boats that placed in the fours race. They placed third, thirteenth and twenty-sixth, which is incredible. The boats were led by senior Chloe Stoeckl, sophomore Mary Schmitz, and senior Clarissa Caushaj. The Women’s team is expected to do even better and place well in the Head of the Charles.
The men’s team also competed this past Saturday at the Head of the Snake Lake Quinsigamond with a very impressive showing by all of their boats. Holy Cross Men’s Crew is looking to defend their Head of the Charles first place finish last year. They won with a time of 14:25 and this was their second time winning at the race. The men’s team had a race this past weekend as well. Amazingly, they placed first and second in the Men’s Collegiate Eight Race. They were led by junior Nikolaos Haralambous and senior Nicholas Cesario. Both of these were incredibly fast times. Then men are also expected to do even better than last year!
Great areas to watch the race are the start, which is the BU Bridge, and the BU Boathouse. There, you will see some boats launch and the boats get ready to start and line up. River Street and Western Ave Bridges which are exciting as boats will come underneath and sometimes hit oars on the bridge as well as each other. Weeks Footbridge is probably the most exciting since boats will need to turn after exiting the bridge. It is where crashes can occur and is a great place to cheer on the teams. The finish line is at Herter Park, and is the ideal area to cheer on the teams as they make their final sprints into the finish line.
Copy edited by Lily Deforge 10/6 and Annamaria DeCamp
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