The Alumni Eights "were flying" this year, in the words of one wag on the banks, and the event has just gotten faster and apparently a lot more fun to race each year.
Both the Harvard Alumni and the Washington Alumnae set new course records today, aided in no small part by the Olympians and National Teamers aboard--4 each for Harvard and Washington--and the record in both events is now more than a minute faster than when the Alumni Eights first joined the HOCR program fifteen years ago.
Listening to alums in this year's edition, it was clear that the fun factor is high when it comes to gathering a group who shares the common bond of coming from the same school. Whether crews just round up the fittest alums who can make the trip or invest the time in 5ks or even multi-week training camps--if rumors can be believed--to select the crew, getting the chance to go fast for your school again and have a blast coming down the Charles is a powerful motivator, and has made the event more competitive every year.
row2k caught up with some of the National Teamers in this year's race to aask what makes the Alumni Eight so special.
"I think it's just a great opportunity to get your friends together," said Washington's Jess Thoennes.
"That's the biggest thing, and especially with Amy Fuller passing away, something that our coaches really imparted upon us is that any time together is so special. Whoever you get to do it with, you should really cherish it."
"Some people from last year weren't able to come, so what a great opportunity for the rest of us to row with people we've never rowed with."
"Everyone who was in the eight this year was already going be at the Head of the Charles, racing or coaching," added UW's Brooke Mooney, "so it was pretty easy to put the boat together."
"They were just happy to come in and race. They were ready to rumble. They brought the hype, brought the energy. You can't get a bad group, that's the thing," said Thoennes about the spirit of these alumni crews.
"Especially with Boys in the Boat coming out," said Mooney, "it's just great to be back with the teammates you went to Washington with and that you share those memories with."
"And it's fun to hear, 'We are the Women of Washington' again over the mic," added Thoeness. "You don't get to do that a lot anymore [after college]."
For Christine Cavallo, who took second this year with her fellow Stanford alums, these crews are about connecting and keeping in touch with the joy of rowing.
"What's awesome about an alumni crew is that it transcends years," said Cavallo, "and for us at Stanford, it transcends lightweight and heavyweight, so you end up with a group of women who have a shared experience that isn't necessarily training for the national team, and isn't rowing first.
"We were all student-athletes, we had that shared experience as students who happened to be rowing at Stanford. We definitely rowed a lot, but the main thing was school. To be able to then leave that, and to leave it in such a mental state where you want to keep going and you're not burned out at the end of those four years and you still find love in the sport so much so that you can come together and put together a fast lineup out here for Head of the Charles? I think that is bad-ass."
"For me, the Head of the Charles was quite stressful when I was racing the Champ single, and it is only going to more and more competitive with the prize money now. But the alumni eight puts me in the mindset of doing this because you love the sport, and then you get to go hard.
"The National Team is bordering on a job, and ultimately you have to treat it that way in order to perform at your standard. This is truly passion rowing, and that's why I love the difference."
As the Alumni Eight has gotten faster, winning it has become serious business.
"It comes down to whoever can have the most stacked boat, and whoever can get the most Olympians," said Harvard's Liam Corrigan, one of those Olympians, on the key to boating an alumni crew that can win the Charles.
"We were able to do that this year and I think Washington did that last year, and they won. That's not to discredit the other guys. You need everyone else to be fit, but if you can get like the most guys who are training fully or have recently been training very seriously, that'll help a lot."
"Hopefully the event becomes more and more competitive," he added. "It's fun to have it that way."
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