Head of the Charles is one of the top 5 largest stages of the rowing world and Connecticut Boat Club raced four boats! On a very sunny/no wind/flat water October 20th the River Rats went out and bossed the course.
The CBC Coxed 1V 4x was steered by Senior Norwalk High School coxswain, AJ Kompiewska, Stroked by Sophia Dranchak, 3 seat Charlotte Mickelborough, 2 seat Iso McCoy and bow seat Kate McDonald. The crew started bow 9 and after a tough battle down the course finished in 25th place. Bow 1 crew Notre Dame RC had finished first last year and finished behind the CBC quad. Many of the crews from the back of the pack made their way to the top 15 places in this event this year!
At 9:02am CBC’s U17 8+ took on the course, finishing 3rd in their age category. The crew: coxswain Allison Murray, 8 seat Kam Morgenstern, 7 seat Olivia Macaluso, 6 seat Camilla Calderwood, 5 seat Norah Surette, 4 seat Katie Estabrook, 3 seat Leighton Busby, 2 seat Christina Charnin, and bow seat Sophia Kearns had a more challenging course. They found themselves in a tough spot on one of the turns that resulted in them stopping for a few strokes and picking up a 1 minute penalty. The crew was safe during the encounter with the other boat. Without the penalty the crew would have finished second in their age category which is a great statement to their fitness and how well the crew gelled together.
In the teams last event (the coxed four) two CBC boats represented the club. In this very competitive race, CBC’s 1V4+ went off the start line first (earning this spot from their gold medal finish last year) and the 2V4+ started in bow 20. In this 90 boat race a lot happened! The teams 1V4+ (Layla Sisca, Sophie Bell, Reagan Weneck, Filippa Keszti and coxswain Izzy Khamish) had a great race where they finished 15th overall. The 2V4+ (Winnie Wartels, Tanaya Dixit, Alexandra Maniatty, Holly Hulme and steered by coxswain Jiah Baak) finished with a strong 44th place out of the 90 boats!
This is always an adrenaline packed weekend in Boston, it truly is the Wild West out there with so many boats in each category and the course being as challenging as it is. CBC is already looking forward to next year’s Head of the Charles race and is wishing for as great of weather as this weekend!
