Crew races in Beantown Rowers compete in famous Head of the Charles

Author: Stephanie Pritchard

The Head of the Charles River (HOCR) is the most prestigious regatta of the fall racing season. Teams from all over the world come to Boston for two days of racing. This year the 41st HOCR saw over 1,000 crews ranging from youth (age 19 or younger) to grand veterans (age 75 and older). The race is known for being one of the most challenging courses for coxswains, filled with two 90-degree turns, one 180-degree turn, several other smaller turns, six bridges and other crews. As rower Anna Eisenstein '07 said, "The Charles is a coxswain's race."

In head races crews start single file approximately 15 seconds apart. It is thus difficult to know who is in first place by simply noticing which crews cross the finish line first. If a crew passes a competitor, that means the first crew is 15 seconds faster than the crew being passed. Crews are started in the order in which they are ranked. Crews that start first are at a significant advantage in terms of boat traffic. Navigating the sharp turns often leads inexperienced coxswains astray, sometimes into other boats, the shore line or a bridge abutment.

The women's team competed in the collegiate fours event with Stephanie Pritchard '06 coxing for Eisenstein, Camden Burton '06.5, Miko Heller '07.5 and Meira Lifson '07. The women's event had 17 crews from both Division I and III schools. The Middlebury women were ranked lucky No. 13. The race got off to a windy start, but Middlebury passed Lafayette College within the first 750 meters, and continued down the only straight-away in the course, passing Lesley College and the Port Moody Rowing Club.

The first major turn, the infamous Weeks Footbridge turn, resulted in a crash ahead of the Middlebury women, who narrowly missed being involved. The remainder of the three-mile course went smoothly for Middlebury, who, in total, passed six boats. The women finished fourth place overall, missing a medal by only nine seconds.

It's been 10 years since Middlebury last placed in the top five at the HOCR and Coach Alex Machi said, "Getting fourth place on this course required a near-perfect performance from all five people in the boat, particularly the coxswain. I've never seen [the women] row better than they did on the last half mile of the race course Saturday."

Co-captain Burton said of the weekend: "It was the type of race where everything comes together from the very beginning. We gave absolutely the best effort we had and we beat some of our top rivals and D-I teams. We were really fortunate to have [Pritchard]'s expert guidance. She steered an unbelievably accurate course - something that's not easy on such a difficult river with a ton of traffic - and when you combine that with the power from the rowers, we were simply unstoppable. It felt awesome."

Due to their impressive performance in the club four last year, the Middlebury men won a bid in the more competitive collegiate eights event. Originally seeded number 41 out of 41 competitors, Middlebury finished 38th, beating Hamilton, Washington College and University of New Hampshire. Coach Machi observed, "Participating in a regatta of this size, surrounded by national team crews [and] the top collegiate rowing programs in the country is something we're simply not used to. I think that maybe our guys weren't able to focus as well as they'd have liked on race day. It's always tough to get nine people bring it together at exactly the right time, especially a relatively young boat like ours with five sophomores."

Co-captain Matt Daylor '06 said, "Being the last boat to start in our event put us in a tough position, with no one chasing us down. We didn't have our best row but we're looking forward to next week's Head.