Dreams do come true! On Sunday October 22, 2023 Norwalk River based Women’s rowing team, Connecticut Boat Club won their second Head of the Charles first place trophy. The first gold medal win for the team was in the Fall of 2011 with a strong Women’s Youth 4+. This year the club raced four boats in a variety of categories, of which winning the prestigious first place trophy in the Women’s Youth Four’s category.
Women’s Youth Four A Boat: Bow 4 finished in 1st place (90 boats raced)
Women’s Youth Four B Boat: Bow 70 finished in 21st place (90 boats raced)
Women’s Youth Coxed Quad: Bow 31 finished in 10th place (50 boats raced)
Women’s Under 17 Four: Bow 6 finished in 22nd place- due to a penalty (26 boats raced)
Assistant Coach, Cass Bruins shared her thoughts on the day, “All of the HOCR crews truly exceeded expectations. They trained hard, and came together to put up the best races they possibly could have- and I’m super proud of them. Having two young Novice coxswains was daunting going in, but they (and the Varsity coxswains) executed the course beautifully. I’m stoked to say that CBC’s competitive dial was turned up a few notches this weekend, and it’s going to continue to do so as the year progresses.”
It is unique to race the same line up two years in a row, but that is what CBC did in the 4+ A boat. Callaghan Nickerson (stroke seat), Caroline Krantz (3 seat), Annika Nelson (2 seat), and Sophie Bell (bow seat) returned with a mission to win the Head of the Charles after placing 4th place last year. The 4 athletes shared, “We have worked all year on accomplishing this goal. We were always reminded that this would be our last time racing HOCR together and that was our biggest motivation. Crossing the finishing line we felt joy and excitement. We knew we did well because we passed two crews in the first mile but we didn’t know we won. When we found out we won we felt nothing but happiness and a sense of accomplishment, what we had dreamed of and worked so hard for payed off.” The crew won the race by 14 seconds and competed against 89 other crews.
The gold medalists raved about their fearless coxswain, Izzy Khamish (11th grade Varsity Coxswain). “Izzy kept us in the perfect line to get us ahead. Each call she made about walking on the boats got us more motivated. There was a lot of pressure on Izzy the entire race but at one bridge there were three boats approaching and Izzy communicated to us that we had to make a move now and of course we responded well to that.”
CBC’s 4+ B boat had an incredible race as well. Starting Bow 70 and caught up to Bow 62 (passing 5 boats). Ava Weneck senior leader (2 seat of the boat) expressed what an incredible race it was from start to finish. The boat also consisted of Sylvia Freidenrich another strong powerhouse senior leader sat in 3 seat, Junior leaders, Isobel McCoy stroked the boat and Charlotte Mickelborough bowed the 4+. Allison Murray (Varsity Coxswain) dominated the course in her first time down the Charles River!
Jillian Chlebowski, Varsity Coxswain steered the 10th place finish for CBC’s Coxed Quad event. Chlebowski commented, “This was my second time racing The Charles, starting in the second half almost helped our boat out more because we had more boats to look forward to and to hunt down throughout the race. We passed 3 boats on the course and closed in on the 4th boat in the final sprint. Crossing the finish line was so great and I could tell that everyone had worked the hardest that they could’ve, it wasn’t perfect but every rower gave it all they had.” This all senior boat was coxed by Jillian, stroked by Audrey Sears, Charlotte Maschoff in 3 seat, Maddy Dodge in 2 seat and bowed by Miya Lee.
Connecticut Boat Club’s final race of the day was the U17 coxed four. Jiah Baak (coxswain), Layla Sisca (stroke), Norah Surette (3 seat), Reagan Weneck (2 seat) and Leighton Busby (bow seat) took on this fun and challenging category. “I’m a high school freshman and it was my first time racing The Charles”, said Leighton Busby. She continued, “The traffic on the river was crazy. We were a little shaken because earlier in the race we were gaining on a boat and as we passed, our oars clashed badly and cost us some speed. When we came off the water we regained our confidence after talking to Coach Liz about the race and the experience.”
It was a day to remember in CBC history. Head Coach, Liz Trond leads an elite level team. CBC is looking forward to next year’s 59th Head of the Charles race. Interested in learning more about CBC and rowing in general? Please visit our website for more information: ctboatclub.org
