With the rain gone, and the sun back out for Sunday's racing, the '23 Head Of The Charles ended on a fast, high note. Straight up, thanks to whichever weather gods you hold in your esteem--they did their jobs today. Today's anticipated high winds mostly stayed away--times were slower, but racing wasn't the slog many observers had feared.

While the youth and collegiate crews who raced this weekend still have a few more fall races and a packed spring to look forward to, for the elite athletes, many of whom only returned to full training after the World Champs a few weeks ago, the Paris Olympics are on everyone's minds. And while the Head Of The Charles is still well on the "fun" end of the spectrum, many of the athletes we spoke to today noted that the regatta serves as an unofficial start to a busy and important next few months.

Champ Eights and Fours

Until this year, there had never been three USRowing Training Center eights in the women's champ eights; all three entries finished in the top six, and the top two boats finished less than 2/10s of a second apart--it was basically a tie.

"We definitely had pride on the line!" said Charlotte Buck, who stroked the winning crew, which was almost the intact lineup of the crew that finished second at the World Champs earlier this year. "We haven't ever had three training center eights before, and it was super fun to have all of our friends out there racing each other."

The US Women's Training Center 'A' Crew

A Danish national team composite crew and GB's Leander finished 3rd and 4th, while the Yale women claimed the top collegiate spot, just ahead of the third US Training Center crew, which was made up of national team sculling athletes, including Champ Singles winner Michelle Sechser.

"This is really nice as a first mark for our training," continued Buck. "We only got back together as a group two weeks ago, and it's nice to have this as an 'OK, things are getting serious' moment before we get back into our pairs and our real training for the fall. I think right now, we're a lot about making each other better and having fun on the journey. It's so important for us to feel like every day is a good part of our journey in rowing, and not just looking at the finish line."

The USA Men

On the Men's side, the USRowing entry, made up in large part of the crew that finished 6th at the World Championships, started and finished first, outdistancing Harvard and Princeton.

"It was not super fast conditions, but I think we stuck to our framework, stuck to our rhythm and just continued to persevere even when the boat got really heavy in the nasty gusts out there," said coxswain Jimmy Catalano. "We knew we wanted to set an aggressive tone to the first mile hold speed and push through the middle mile and then wind it up for the end.

"Our new lineup came together on Friday pretty seamlessly. [Alex] Hedge and Ezra [Carlson] are racing at Pan Ams this weekend, so Nick Mead from the Four and Alex Karwoski hopped in their spots and off we went. The group did a really good job today of just taking ownership over what we were doing."

As with the USA women, the men's group is looking to the months ahead. "I think the energy in the group is pretty positive," said Catalano. "You know we have two sweep boats qualified right now and the hope of getting the eight qualified in May as well. We really want the team to continue to work towards our goals and although we fell short specifically in the eight in terms of qualifying we are going to follow the plan that Josy has for us to try and make sure that we have that boat included at the Games."

Two Pairs can make a good Four

In the Women's Champ Four, a "superboat" made up of the USA Women's pair of Meghan Musnicki and Alie Rusher, who finished 6th at the World Championships, and Australian Olympic champions Jess Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre, who came in second in the same event, joined forces, added a coxswain, and won by 42 seconds today.

"That was an awesome four to race in," said Musnicki. "We practiced a couple of times together, but mainly this was about enjoying the experience of being in Boston and having a blast."

"It's incredible to have the opportunity to row with a pair like that, and it is a little different technically. Obviously, all four of us are very capable rowers, so it's just about finding that at pace, where you come together, what calls make you come together, and you run with that."

One of the biggest bonuses for Musnicki was getting back into a boat she didn't have to steer. "I didn't care where we were on the river, I didn't have to look around, it's a lot less to think about. Caroline Ricksen, our coxswain, did a wonderful job, we just carved our way through the course."

The Princeton Heavies notched the only collegiate win in the Champ events today, taking the win in the Men's Champ Fours ahead of Penn and Georgetown.

Youth Events

Pound for pound, the best performance in the Youth events came from the GB's St. Paul's School in the Men's Youth Eights. St. Paul's started 74th in the 90-boat field, charged through the mayhem ahead of them, and won the event by 20 seconds.

The St. Paul's School (UK) boys

"It was a challenge," admitted St. Paul's coxswain Victor Bocquet. "Crews down there were really responsive and did a nice job moving out of our way. We asked very politely."

"There was a crash around Anderson bridge, and we had to do a short sprint around Weeks because there were crews in the way, but overall it was pretty clean. This is so different from the races we do in the UK, because you have to focus on the cox ahead. In long races, it's usually the rower's job, here it was really important for me to not mess up."

RowAmerica Rye took the Women's Youth Eights, Oakland Strokes took the Men's Youth Fours, and the Connecticut Boat Club won the Women's Youth Fours.

The RowAmerica Rye Women's Youth Eight

Across the Junior athletes we spoke with, the main threads that emerged were that the athletes simply loved to row, and, once they discovered their racing confidence, rowing things seemed to click into place.

"It just takes confidence, knowing that you are going to go out and do what you need to do to get the results you want," said Tony Madigan, who was the top under-17 finisher in the Men's Youth Single (he finished fifth overall).

"We both started rowing in 9th grade, and we've been rowing together for about two years," said Michael Ruschmann of the Whitemarsh Boat Club, who along with Ryan McLaughlin won the Men's Youth Doubles. "We're both students of the sport," added McLaughlin, we like to critique ourselves to get better over practices and over weeks."

Redwood's Olivia Petri

"I just think I love rowing," added Olivia Petri, who won the Women's Youth Singles. "Enjoying rowing is kind of key to it, I never want to get off the water when we row steady state, I could stay out there forever if my coach could stay out there. Loving rowing gets you through the bad days."

You can read more from Petri and Men's Youth Singles winner Devan Godfrey in our feature here.

The 12 Youth events run at the Head Of The Charles make up a staggering 705 entries and over 3,500 athletes.

Lightweight Eights and Fours

The Lightweight eights titles at Head Of The Charles are staying on the Charles for another year, as the Harvard Light Men and Radcliffe Light women both started and finished first in their events.

Harvard Lightweights

"I wouldn't say we're running the show out here, Penn and Cornell gave us really good races today," said Harvard two-seat and team captain Michael Fairley. "It feels good to continue to move on what we were doing last year. Everybody's hungry for more, last year we came in second at Sprints and second at IRA, so this narrow win today keeps everyone very hungry. We know we can't let off the gas."

Cornell took the Men's Lightweight Four, and Stanford, starting second to last in their event, won the Women's Lightweight Four.

Collegiate Eights and Fours

Tufts made it a happy day for their boathouse as they captured both the Men's and Women's Collegiate Eights, a first for both squads.

"I think a lot of this result comes from every individual, and the work every person puts in to push the momentum forward" said women's coxswain Hannah Jiang. "Wellesley has been our biggest competition since NCAAs, so we've been working to push off of them."

Tufts Men

"I think it comes down to orienting the goals of the group with the goals of the individual," said Max Landers, six seat of the Tuft's Men's crew. "Just that understanding that everyone is motivated to perform in different ways."

"We've had a lot of good weeks and months this fall," said men's coxswain Aidan Keusch. "This group hasn't had a bad practice yet, the mindset was to keep the same energy, and to trust our fitness and our rhythm. Nothing changed out here, and we got the result we wanted."

Across the board, athletes from both of the winning Tufts boats made it clear that their wins were the result of a boathouse culture, and not just their two boats.

Stetson won the Men's Collegiate Fours and Vanderbilt took the Women's Collegiate Fours.

For more from Sunday, check out our Notes from the Course here!