Before we get started, find Sunday’s edition of Notes from the Course here.
With the Youth, Championship and Collegiate events hitting the water on Sunday, the Charles River basin fills up with big boats, none more so than in the Youth Men's Eights, with fully 90 boats (and 810 high school athletes) lining up for their shot down the Charles. Bring it on!
In a twist, Sunday's winds were 180 degrees reversed from Saturday's record-setting conditions, but it didn't matter. Under cool and rainy conditions, and with a slight wind from the North east, another half-dozen course records were set on Sunday.
Champ Events
Starting from bow #4, the USRowing Men's Champ Eight set a blistering pace en route to a new course record of 13:23.6, bettering Cal's 2017 mark by four seconds.
"We use it as a motivating tool, but I don't think we went out there thinking 'we're gonna set a course record,'" said coxswain Jimmy Catalano. "We knew what the times were that we had to go, and when we passed by Riverside at about 3:02 or 3:03, I remember going, 'Wow, we're going really, really fast.'"
The crew, which was made up of members of the US Eight and Four that competed at the World Championships in Racice in September, as well as other national team athletes, has had a decent run since Worlds, winning the 12.7k SH Netz Cup against Germany, Netherlands, and Ukraine in late September, so a course record at the Charles seems like par for the course.
Rowing in the seven seat of the crew was Ezra Carlson, who made his own history this weekend by becoming the first male athlete to win the Champ Single and the Champ Eight at the same Head of the Charles.
Just ten seconds behind the USRowing entry, the Syracuse men came in second for their best finish here in years.
"It was awesome," said coxswain Bricen Nygaard. "We just went out there with a clear goal in mind to have a clean run and have a great race, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we ended up in the top position right there."
"All the boys just work hard together, put in putting miles, and everyone backs each other side by side," added four seat Lachlan Doust. "Let's get to work, just get it done."
It's tempting to use the word "surprising" here to describe Syracuse's result, but it's not really; under coach Dave Reischmann, the Syracuse men have steadily improved in recent years and are now among the elite teams in men's collegiate rowing.
On the women's side, the UK's Leander Club took the win by just over a second with a crew made up of GB internationals and international hopefuls. "There's no big secret," said coxswain Morgan Baynham-Williams. "It's taking the time to focus on the simple things, processes, and that helps put together a result like today's."
This weekend marked the Leander's first-ever trip to the Head of the Charles.
Just over a second behind Leander were the women from the University of Pennsylvania, who started at bow #5 and finished with their first-ever collegiate Champ event title at the Head of the Charles.
"I think this is the accumulation of two years of really good training," said Penn stroke Josie Konopka. "Everyone who was in this boat played a big part in our season last year, and when we finished last season, we knew exactly what we wanted to build on and what we wanted to do this fall. It's just been a really focused, driven group, and we've been attacking the training blocks with a lot of really good focus."
"We knew that we were taking the turns really tight, and we knew that we were maintaining the splits that we had set our goals for," added coxswain Sophia Poersch. "When we started moving into the boat in front of us, we really felt like we were attacking this piece the way we wanted to."
The Men's Champ Four was won by a crew of US National Team athletes representing Peloton in the company's first big push into the rowing world. The Women's Champ Four was won by a USRowing entry of national team athletes, who smashed the event's previous course record by 20 seconds.
"It's been kind of a reunion of sorts," said bow seat Maddie Wanamaker. "We've been on vacation going our separate ways, and it was fun to come back together as a four. The course record was the cherry on top!"
Cornell and Brown were the Men's and Women's collegiate Champ Four winners, respectively.
Youth Events
There are now 12 Youth events at the Head of the Charles, and the growth in these events (both in size and speed) shows no sign of abating.
On the women's side, RowAmerica Rye was on top of the pile this year, posting the win in the Women's Youth Eight by one second over Greenwich.
"We just had trust in each other we and trust in our coxswain," said five seat Eleanor Smith. "Our plan was going to go out there and, no matter the result, it was going to be as one."
"We had a great team dinner, and we talked a lot about what we wanted," added coxswain Ella Sheth. "We started bow number three and we knew we wanted to be number one by the end of it."
In a testament to their team speed, Rye's "B" entry in the same event, a bonafide U17 crew, finished third, starting from bow number 86.
The Greenwich Boys repeated their win from 2021 today, which was not a mean feat; there are no sure things at the Charles, even from bow number 1, when you have 89 other crews chasing you down.
"Our plan was definitely to take it as fast as we could throughout the first 2000 meters up to about the Weeks bridge," said coxswain Ella Seguin. "We wanted to build the the margins, get the ratio, get the rhythm down, and make sure everybody's following our strokeseat, Will Drinkall, who set a very perfect ratio."
"It takes a lot, a lot of meters and a lot of effort," added Drinkall. "Early in the season we sat down in a room together after one practice and talked about the positives and what we need to work on and just really bonded as a crew. We spend a lot of time together outside of practice, just making sure we're always having these conversations of how we can improve as whole."
Greenwich also won the Women's Youth Four, while Newport Aquatic Center took the Men's Youth Four. Two new events, U17 Fours for Men & Women were added to the racing program this year, with Whitemarsh taking the Women's event and Miami Rowing Club taking the Men's event.
The health of Youth Sculling was also much in evidence at the Charles, with crews from Cambridge Boat Club, Y Quad Cities, Nereid and Los Gatos taking the wins in the Men's and Women's Youth Doubles and Youth Quads, respectively.
Catherine Barry and Henry Davison from Oak Neck Rowing Academy took the Youth singles; read our feature on them here.
The youth events, as always, can be hard on oars, equipment, and nerves. As one wag remarked during the Men's Youth Eights, "they're going to need to rebuild the Eliot Bridge after this event."
Lightweight Events
The two hometown crews ended a few years in the proverbial wilderness this weekend, with the Harvard Lightweight Men and Radcliffe Lightweight Women claiming top honors on home water for the first time since 2012 and 2016.
"It really, really means a lot, because through these past years, there's been so much positivity, so much buy in from everybody," said Harvard two seat Mike Fairley. "This is really the culmination of all of that, which feels incredible. It's a really encouraging start looking towards the rest of the year. We'll see what we can do in the spring!"
Not everyone had a clean run down the course in this event, whew.
The Radcliffe Lightweights really took the hometown steering to the bank; the Rad Lights were running a second behind Princeton at every split along the course, right through Cambridge Boat Club, before a tight turn around Eliot gave them the two seconds they needed for the win.
"Princeton has set the bar for a few years, so it was nice to finally get them," said six seat Calliste Skouras.
"The energy was really high, and our coxswain Sylvie Spitz was just really honest about keeping the rate and the power up through the last turn, and we all moved all together," added seven seat Ava Sack. "It was a race we'd never really experienced like a team before, and we're really excited to keep this energy up and keep going for the rest of the fall."
The University of British Columbia made their trip east very worthwhile, capturing both the Men's and Women's Lightweight Fours.
The lightweight events, of course, are not entirely what they used to be, at least not in terms of sheer numbers. This writer can remember competing in a field of almost 40 Lightweight Men's Fours, mere decades ago.
Collegiate Events
In the Collegiate events, the Drexel men made it a golden weekend for the Dragons, with Drexel capturing the Men's Collegiate Eight in course record time to go along with the title in the Women's Club eight their teammates captured on Saturday.
"I think it's just a really strong showing of what we're trying to build here," said two seat John Karen. "We've been really trying to push the team to do more; everything is just building towards the spring speed, the fall is essential for that."
"It all kind of came to show today," added four seat Jake Miller. "It's a strong core of a team. We've had some older guys on the team that have kind of led us along, but also the young guys that really stepped up big time."
The Mercyhurst College women repeated their win from 2021, but with a number of new athletes in the crew, the athletes felt this win was just as special.
"It was definitely awesome going off the line first, we don't have to worry about puddles or rowing through anyone," said four seat Autumn Kearney, who rowed in the winning crew last year. "It does bring in the nerves a little bit for the need to fill those shoes again."
"Especially for the freshmen that are in the boat and the girls that didn't get in the boat last year, it's great to bring them up as well and get another gold medal with them too," added stroke seat Erin Jackson. "We've got a national championship to defend next year, and we want to do it again here too!"
Notre Dame captured the Men's Collegiate Fours, while Lafayette captured the Women's event.
As is now tradition, the regatta finished with Parent Child Doubles and the Mixed Eights, with the bicoastal pairing of Niels and Bjorn Lauberg from Marin & NYAC capturing the double and the 'Pieces of Eight' entry winning the Mixed Eight. Also rowing in the eights event was the first-ever Para Great Eight, in what will hopefully become a tradition.
Finally, kudos to top finishers super1x, greenzero8, and mliebman for their prowess in row2k's HOCR Pick'em!
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