Crew finishes ahead of Bowdoin at Head of Charles

Author: Livingston Burgess

The Middlebury men's and women's crew teams have been hard at work building on a season that has demonstrated great potential for two fairly youthful groups. On Oct. 21, both teams traveled to the New Hampshire Championships Regatta, where they fought fog, choppy water and stiff competition. A week later, the women went to the Head of the Charles Regatta.

At the New Hampshire Championships, where the teams clashed with a field that included several NESCAC rivals, the Panthers entered three boats on the men's side and two on the women's. In the tightly-contested open singles race, co-captains David Wood '07.5 and Eric Hoest '07.5 were separated by only ten seconds on their way to placing seventh and eighth, respectively. Given that they were fighting the elements and competing in recreational-level equipment against a competitive field, Hoest felt that the times and places did not do justice to the impressive performances.

"The race conditions were tough all day," said Hoest, "but the team showed focus, which bodes well for our last race of the season at the Head of the Fish."

The Men's open four saw a young Panther team take on one of the day's largest fields. Out of 26 boats, Jason Sanford '10, David Reymondet '09, Scott Robinson '09, Garrett Reynolds '09 and coxswain Nick Palmeri '09 came in eighteenth with their time of 17:47. MIT's A crew was first at 16:00.

Middlebury's top places, though, came in the Women's open four, which also boasted a large field, as well as five teams within just sixteen seconds of each other. The A Crew narrowly bested their MIT counterpart for fifth place, with the teams separated by mere tenths of a second at 19:48. That team included Kathryn Babin '07, Dale Freundlich '10, Brett Dollar '09 and Emily Dawson '08.5 and was coxswained by Brooke Adams '07.

In the same event, the B Crew was close behind for their seventh place finish at 19:59. Margaret Smith '09, Abigail Mayer '09, Laurel Wickberg '09, Flora Campbell '09 and coxswain Hana Nagao '09 comprised that team. The overall winner for the event was the squad from Franklin Pierce at 19:00.

The Women's A Four also competed last Saturday and Sunday at the Head of the Charles, where they went up against a 27-boat draw in which they held their own, finishing 11th. Wood, who traveled with the team, was impressed by the performance.

"The women rowed strong against a competitive field, and did well against our NESCAC competition," Wood said. He noted that Adams, "steered an aggressive course, and picked very good lines."

Coach Alex Machi had tremendous praise for Adams.

"Boston is an extremely difficult race course - as evidenced by the number of crashes seen there every year," he said, "and having a skilled coxswain is critical to any boat's success."

"We were very competitive on the water and really managed to prove our capabilities among other crews," said Adams, who was very pleased that they beat Bowdoin.