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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Jumbos part of historic 50th Head of the Charles Regatta

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The 50th annual Head of the Charles regatta took place this weekend on the Charles River with over 10,000 competitors from 32 countries taking part in multiple age and rowing divisions.

This weekend, both the men's and women's crew teams had the opportunity to be a part of one of the world's preeminent rowing competitions, the Head of the Charles Regatta. In the historic 50th Anniversary Regatta, which attracted 11,000 competitors and more than 400,000 spectators, both teams recorded commendable performances against teams from all three divisions.

"I think the experience of rowing in the Head of the Charles is really great, because even at such a big regatta we felt like a home team," junior Claire Markoff said. "There were a lot of people cheering for Tufts. We met our personal goals that we set for the [races] because it is such a big [event]. There were Division I schools, and there were schools with much bigger programs than us that we knew would probably do better than us, but we did beat other teams which we were happy with."

The women's team raced two boats -- the club eights and the lightweight eight shell.In the club eights event on opening day, the Jumbos recorded a 17:41.72 time, placing them 20th out of 34 total entries. The next day in the 55th and final event of the regatta, Tufts' lightweight eight finished 11th out of 12 with a 19:18.83 time. 

The Tufts club eight line-up consisted of sophomore stroke Natalia Kastenberg, senior 7-seat Rachel Paterson, senior 6-seat Taylor Maykranz, senior 5-seat Laura Washburn, senior 4-seat Emma Peabody, sophomore 3-seat Julia Davis, junior 2-seat Laura Hofmann, senior bow Brett Mele and sophomore coxswain Cori JacobyThe lightweight eight shell boat was made up of freshman stroke Emma Conroy, senior 7-seat Emily Eickhoff, freshman 6-seat Arielle Mann, senior 5-seat Laura Aravena,  junior 4-seat Emma Wells, 3-seat Markoff, freshman 2-seat Mary Gusentine, senior bow Madison Morley and sophomore coxswain Abigail Perelman.

The men's team participated in three events -- the club eights, collegiate eight and lightweight four -- spread out over the two days.

Racing for Tufts in the club eights event was junior stroke Andrew Warren, sophomore 7-seat Tyler McCullough, junior 6-seat Jon Williams, junior 5-seat Martin Van Mierlo, sophomore 4-seat Zach Merchant, senior 3-seat Dixon Minnick, sophomore 2-seat Griffin Richards, freshman bow Colton Karch and sophomore coxswain Connor Fallon.The team finished 40th out of 47 total entries with a 17:15.43 time.

The collegiate eights placed 36th out of 44 teams with a 16:56.55 time, a team consisting of senior stroke Samuel Helrich, senior 7-seat Chris Rickard, senior 6-seat Peter Estes, freshman 5-seat Andrew MacMillen, freshman 4-seat Andrew Bittles, sophomore 3-seat John Bailey, senior 2-seat Jeffrey Aalberg, junior bow Zhuangchen Zhou and senior coxswain Katherine Gawlas.

The lightweight four was the second-to-last men's event of the regatta, and the Jumbo team of junior stroke Jackson Horwitz, sophomore 3-seat Douglas Burt, freshman 2-seat Matt Cohen, senior tri-captain bow Krzystof Danielewicz and junior coxswain Maria Karam were 16th of 22 (18:10.12).

"The water was a little rougher than what we'd been used to, we've had good luck with the wind on the river the past week so we hadn't been able to practice on rough waters," Danielewicz said. "We got better as the race went on, it was a little rough in the beginning. It was for most of us, the first time racing in the Head of the Charles which was hard because we were more nervous than usual. We were really tense so at the beginning of the race we were a little more rushed and out of sync than usual."

Racing alongside a world-class field of competitors including elite athletes from around the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, it was natural for the Jumbos to feel overwhelmed. The Head of the Charles Regatta over the weekend saw the Croatian duo of Martin and Valent Sinkovic, the fluid and dynamic team that won the 2014 World Rowing Championship for men's double sculls in Amsterdam, en route to setting a world record of 5:59.72.The brothers did not disappoint, shattering the course record by an unprecedented 12 seconds with a smooth 15:40, beating out runners-up Tom and Peter Graves by 17 seconds.

Additionally, the 2014 regatta saw the return of the race's inaugural winner in the lightweight singles, Larry Fogelberg, who returned from Germany to participate in the race for the first time since he won in 1965. It also featured the final race of the seasoned Alte Achter Boat Club, the crew that won a silver medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics and was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame in 2012. They have been rowing the Head of the Charles since 1972 and have returned every year since, making this their 43rd straight race.

"It was crazy to row by Olympians and people who are clearly world champions in the sport," Danielewicz said. "[But] really the biggest thing that we got from this race was to not let that first situation affect the way we race. At the start of the race we got passed by three separate boats, and we assumed that we were doing very poorly but it turns out we had been seeded in a very competitive division so those three boats all ended up being top five finishers. We let being passed affect us and that led to slower times and less ability to do well, so I think staying calm and learning not to let nerves affect you [was the biggest lesson]."

The teams will have a chance to put those lessons into practice when they continue their season at the Head of the Fish Regatta this Saturday, Oct. 25 in Saratoga, NY.