Men's Heavies Pace Crew at Head of the Charles

At the 37th racing of the Head of the Charles, both Harvard and Radcliffe crews found success among the crowds of spectators and the challenge of international competition.

The Harvard heavyweight boat led the way with its third place finish yesterday in the Championship Eight.

“I thought it was a pretty strong race,” captain Wayne Pommen said. “[Senior] Jim Omartian steered an excellent course. There was a lot of weird wind. There was tailwind in some places, headwinds and crosswinds in some places. We did really well in the powerhouse stretch, where there was a really good tailwind—we were really flying. There was a headwind at the last turn, so we really had to fight to get to the finish line.”

The U.S. national team, rowing under USRowing, took the title with a winning time of 14:09.460, while Deutscher Ruderverband, the German national team, took second with 14:21.179. The Crimson won the collegiate portion of the competition with a time of 14:28.240, also beating out international opponents.

“[Wisconsin] started kind-of close, but we moved up well on them,” senior Hugo Mallinson said. “We also pulled well away from Brown. It was a really good race on the whole and we were rowing in open water during most of the time, not really worrying about other crews.”

The second Harvard heavyweight boat, under the name of the Charles River Rowing Association and comprised of the sophomores who won the Temple Cup at Henley last year, finished in fifteenth place with a time of 14:56.289.

Harvard had further success in the Youth Eight event on Sunday, where the Crimson freshmen boat took first place for the fourth straight year with a time of 14:58.700. Northeastern’s time of 15:15.710 was the closest time, as the Huskies took second.

The Crimson continued its sweep of success with a win in the Club Eight event on Saturday. The first of Harvard’s two boats in the event took the crown with a time of 15:18.278 while the second boat, under Charles River Rowing Association, placed fourteenth with 15:59.169.

“Club eight is a crapshoot because the strength of crews vary from year to year,” senior Graham O’Donoghue said. “At points, it wasn’t as clean as we would have wanted, but we rowed really aggressively up the entire course.”

Once it finally broke out of Notre Dame’s wash and got a hold on moving under the bridges, the Crimson passed two boats in its row to victory.

“Our coxswain, Emily Murphy, did a fantastic job,” O’Donoghue said.

“Our freshman eight won the Youth Eight, one boat won the Club Eight, and we won the Collegiate Eight,” Pommen said. “It was our best performance in recent memory.”

The Harvard lightweights came away satisfied, though with less success in the Lightweight Eight event. The first lightweight boat, under Charles River Rowing Association, finished in seventh with 15:13.93 while the second boat finished in 20th place out of 20 boats in 16:58.43 after receiving a one-minute penalty.

“We were pretty satisfied with our first 3 minutes,” co-captain Joe Finelli said. “We took the start out harder than we would normally. In the past few years, we’ve dropped distance in the past 3/4 of a mile so we made it a goal not to drop that distance. We accomplished our goal, but we paid for it later.”

The Crimson’s fast start put the boat far ahead of Dartmouth and within sight of Navy. But Harvard wasn’t able to hold onto the speed of its fast start and never caught the Mishipmen.

“It always puts a little something into you when you have a crew next to you,” Finelli said. “We weren’t able to maintain our push on Navy, so we didn’t have that advantage.”

Harvard’s finish left several collegiate crews ahead of it, including rival Yale, who won the event with a time of 14:35.509.

“For the two boats that raced, the effort was there,” Finelli said. “We have to translate the same good effort into more boat speed.”

Radcliffe also finished the regatta with mixed results. The Black and White heavyweights entered two boats into the Championship Eight, where the first boat placed 37th with a time of 17:54.930 after a one-minute penalty. The second boat took 25th place, finishing at 17:29.410.

“The varsity did not have its best race,” said Radcliffe heavyweights coach Liz O’Leary. “The trick now is to figure out why so that we can regroup and go faster the next time we race, which is going to be next weekend.”

“Despite the disappointing results (particularly after our win at Rochester last weekend), I’m still proud of the overall effort in this eight today,” wrote junior coxswain Cait Koss in an email. “Today’s race was a learning experience and will only make us more determined when we face many of the same crews at Princeton next week.”

The U.S. national team, under USRowing, won the event with a time of 16:01.690. Defending champion Princeton took second with a time of 16:10.840, 17 seconds ahead of third-place London Training Center, the Canadian national team.

Radcliffe was able to hold off the U.S. national team until the very last turn. The source of the penalty was unclear at the time this article was written.

The second Black and White boat also had the pleasure of racing in the midst of international fame.

“We anticipated them passing us before the B.U. bridge,” said sophomore Sara Clark, who is also a Crimson editor. “We ended up holding them off until after Riverside [bridge], so that was awesome. It was actually the first time I’ve ever enjoyed being passed by a boat, and that goes for the Canadian national team as well.”

The Black and White novice crew earned second place in the Youth Eight, first out of collegiate teams.

The Radcliffe lightweight boats also performed very well, with the Black and White taking third place in the Lightweight Eight and eighth in the Lightweight Four.

Wisconsin took first place with a time of 16:49.090 while Riverside Boat Club followed in 17:03.789. Radcliffe’s 17:19.009 was fast enough to beat out national champion Princeton. In the Lightweight four, the Black and White earned eighth place with a time of 20.30.849. The Badgers placed highest of the collegiate crews with 19:36.309 while Undine won the event in 19:16.930.

“Wisconsin clearly placed first and they are setting the standard,” said Radcliffe lightweight coach Cecile Tucker. “Princeton probably didn’t have their best race today, but they are always a force to contend with. MIT has been doing a great job.”

Harvard and Radcliffe rowing didn’t stop with the undergraduate rowers. Harvard heavyweight coach Harry Parker participated in the Veteran Singles event while O’Leary took part as a member of Etas Unis, the 1980 Olympics boat in the Masters Eights.

This weekend, rowers were able to enjoy both success and fame as they rowed alongside the best and between shores of incredible crowds.

Spectators cheered not only for the crews of their team’s color, but also cheered in unison as the U.S. national teams passed.

“This is such an amazing event,” O’Leary said. “The whole spectacle of the Head of the Charles, it’s pretty remarkable. It can be distracting and overwhelming. But it’s also exciting. You race crews you don’t see for a long time. You race a national team boat or a canadian team boat and that’s a pretty cool thing to do.”