The men’s crew team’s first varsity boat put together a remarkable second-place finish at the Head of the Charles regatta this past weekend. The boat’s finishing time of 15:02 for the three-mile race was just 3.5 seconds behind first-place Trinity. The women’s varsity boat ranked 20th of 44 with a time of 18:37 in this past weekend’s competition, earning a bid in next year’s race.
A race that is billed as the world’s largest two-day regatta, the Head of the Charles featured 42 collegiate eight entries, including Wesleyan. The team has seen notable improvements in the past several years, moving from a 24th finish in 2005 to a 5th place ranking in 2006.
“It’s always exciting to improve on previous performances and, in that regard, getting second place instead of fifth place is very rewarding,” said co-captain Tom Volgenau ’08. “However, we are much more focused on what lies ahead, so while it’s nice to compare ourselves against how we did in the past, we’re placing much more emphasis on future races.”
“We’ll be training very hard this winter,” Charlie Weiss ’09 added.
Sunday’s performance is heartening for a team with so much young blood.
“After last season we lost three really talented rowers and a solid coxswain,” remarked Doug Cody ’09. “So there was a little anxiety to see if this year’s lineup would match up in such a competitive event. The new people stepped in and made a huge impact in this race.”
“The new additions to the team have been performing tremendously well,” Volgenau said. “Everyone is forced to make significant improvements, or they risk losing their seat to a very fast group of younger guys.”
The team is looking to build off of the victory during the coming winter months, when they begin indoor training for the spring season.
“We know now with certainty that our boats will be nasty competitive on the water in the spring, and we’ll train accordingly this winter,” said co-captain Jeremy Brown ’08.
The women’s team continued to make progress this past weekend, earning a bid for next year’s race with their finishing time. The team finished eight seconds behind Tufts and 13 seconds ahead of Wellesley. It was not as fortunate last year and had to rely on the lottery for this year’s entry.
“It’s both motivating and a relief that we don’t have to worry about not winning a bid in the lottery,” noted Liz Holden ’11. “Many crews finished in a relatively short time distance from each other and I believe that we ended up in that heap, which shows that we have chance to really make a name for the women’s team in future races as we continue to train and become a faster crew.”
Coxswain and captain Jinny Jang ’08 summarized the weekend nicely.
“We had a strong showing, improved considerably from the Housatonic, and are looking forward to closing the gap to other NESCAC schools over winter training,” she said.
The Head of the Charles also provides one of the more challenging races for coxswains to navigate. George Bennum ’09 and Jang rose to the occasion for the men’s and women’s varsity, respectively. The Head of the Charles is a difficult race for navigation due to narrow bridges, the amount of crews and the winding course.
“In my opinion, head racing is where the coxswains earn the respect of the rowers, and ours definitely did that,” Cody said.
“Many crews crash or get penalized or have difficulties making the tight turns,” added Holden. “But with Jinny, we experienced no problems and because of this, we were able to row a great, fast race.”
Brown echoed Holden’s sentiments.
“George steered the best course I have seen steered in my six times racing that course,” he said. “Our boat hugged every turn and accelerated under his command at the perfect moments”
Both teams will be finishing their fall seasons at the Head of the Fish regatta in Saratoga, N.Y. this coming Sunday.
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