Category: News

The River Rats raced four crews at the Head of the Charles in Boston on Sunday, October 18, led by a varsity four that medaled. Senior stroke Camilla Calderwood of Darien, New Canaan’s Brooke LeBaron, Westport’s Skye Coats and Stamford’s Noelle Basta, coxed by Westport junior Mishi Khamish, finished 5th out of 85 boats in the Women’s Youth Fours. In the Women’s Youth Singles, New Canaan sophomore Charlotte Edwards finished 10th out of 48 and was the second fastest under-17 sculler in the race.

Results

Women’s Youth Fours: cox Mishi Khamish, Camilla Calderwood (stroke), Brooke LeBaron, Skye Coats, Noelle Basta (bow), 5th of 85, 18:51.044

Women’s Youth Singles: Charlotte Edwards, 10th of 48, 21:19.942

Women’s Youth Coxed Quads: cox Maddie Scholl (Ridgefield), Leighton Busby (New Canaan, stroke), Olivia Macaluso (Ridgefield), Kate Surette (Ridgefield), Kirsten Borner (New Canaan, bow), 24th of 48, 19:31.241

Women’s Under-17 Fours: cox Frida Allers (Wilton), Hana Lee (Wilton, stroke), Emily Goertel (Darien), Grace Mickels (Darien), Sloane Keane (Ridgefield, bow), 12th of 34, 19:48.333

Full results: https://www.regattacentral.com/v3/regatta/results2?job_id=10096&org_id=0

Charlotte started 32nd and posted the 10th fastest time, and the varsity four started 10th and finished 5th, 23 seconds behind the winner. The under-17 four, a crew of sophomores, finished less than a second ahead of the next boat. Coach Liz Trond put it this way: “Charlotte was second in the U17 1x category and the U17 4+ placed 12th as U16 rowers! Every boat requalified with the V4+ finishing 1 hair from 4th place and 3 seconds from 3rd place.”

CBC alumnae were all over the Charles this weekend. Class of 2024’s Caroline Krantz and Annika Nelson sat back to back in the 6 and 5 seats of Dartmouth’s championship eight, 12th of 32 and sixth among the college crews. 2025 captain Izzy Khamish coxed Princeton’s championship four to 6th of 20, third among college boats, and on Saturday her sister Mia Khamish steered the Duke alumnae eight to 18th of 47 with Sophia Greco at stroke. Callaghan Nickerson (Boston College) and Sophia Dranchak (Georgetown) both rowed 3 seat in the Club Fours, finishing 15th and 21st of 47. Filippa Keszti helped Bates to 5th of 29 in the Collegiate Eights, and Class of 2026’s Kam Morgenstern bowed BU’s lightweight four to 9th of 12.

Next up is the Head of the Fish in Saratoga, October 24 to 25.

Photo by Katharine Calderwood

The CBC racing team competed at the Head of the Housatonic on Sunday, October 11, 2026. The gorgeous fall foliage was in full bloom for the girls’ home-state head race with rain showers that persisted all day. Despite the rainy conditions, the CBC squad knows how to handle all types of weather. With Head Coach Liz Trond at the helm for launching and landing each boat, the girls were excited to race in Shelton. 

It was Wilton High School coxswain Frida Allers’ first official varsity race, and after the race we got to hear directly from her. Allers shared how she and her teammates embraced rowing fast and going with the flow. Despite what she called “a hectic hot seating,” with her boat having little time to get to the start line, her race felt very good and technically clean. “My favorite part of the race was when we were all laughing and talking about the race while paddling back to the docks because nothing went as planned. It was nice to just let loose and joke around a little bit with each other once the hardest part was over!” It sounds like varsity racing comes with making the most of unexpected circumstances! 

As for the full team results:

Women’s Varsity 1x (Mitz Carr Trophy)

Women’s 2V 1x

CBC: 2nd place (3 seconds behind 1st place finisher, Star) 

Women’s Varsity 2x

Women’s 2V 2x

Women’s 3V 4+

Women’s Novice 8+

CBC: 4th place (13 seconds behind 3rd place finisher, Rye)

Women’s 2V 4+

CBC: 7th place (6 seconds behind 6th place finisher, Greenwich)

Women’s 4x+

CBC: 1st place (2 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher, Litchfield Hills)

Women’s Varsity 4x

CBC: 3rd place (37 seconds behind 2nd place finisher, Rye)

Women’s Varsity 4+

CBC: 3rd place (2 seconds behind 2nd place finisher, Rye)

Women’s 2V 4x

Women’s Novice 4+

The team is back on the race course next weekend, racing at the one and only Head of the Charles in Boston!

The podium was busy for CBC at the Regional Championship Regatta! The River Rats competed in multiple sculling and sweep events throughout the weekend. Building off of the teams incredible performance at Saratoga Invitational Regatta a few weeks back, the girls found more speed which led to more medals!

If you can imagine perfect conditions (no wind, full sunshine), incredible food, happy teenagers and fun coaches that is exactly what this weekend represented. Maybe ice cream is what makes the girls so fast, because ice cream was certainly on the menu every dinner!

Jumping into results: Most boats had time trials on Saturday. All CBC boats advanced to the A grand final based on their spectacular performance in the time trials. Sunday was your standard spring sprint racing style of competition. Sunday morning kicked off with the 4- race where Junior stroke seat, Camilla Calderwood led the boat to a gold medal and invitation to compete at USRowing Nationals. Calderwood was supported by Freshman Emily Goertel, and bow pair Brooke LeBaron and Layla Sisca. CBC’s all senior 4+ was coxed by Allison Murray to a 6th place finish (13 boats total). Murray’s rowers were Sophia Kearns, Kam Morgenstern, Norah Surette and Katie Estabrook.

Incoming Sacred Heart Freshman, Tanaya Dixit led her 2V4x to a massive first place finish with a time of 7:22.77 ahead of second place finisher Great Bay (7:39.57). Alex Maniatty who is committed to rowing at Indiana University in the Fall supported her fellow senior in the bow pair. Stern pair was led by Juniors, Kirsten Borner and Olivia Macaluso. The quad success did not end with the 2v, it continued with the 1v4x! The magician, Noelle Basta also led her crew to a massive first place victory with a time of 6:59.40 (9 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher). Leighton Busby stroked, Christina Charnin powered in 3 seat and Westport’s Skye Coats was crafty in 2 seat.

For the first time in program history, CBC competed in the U16 8+ event and the girls came ready to conquer! With a bronze medal finish the 8+ full of youngsters have secured their invitation to the last dance in Florida. Coxswain, Chloe Katzner was spectacular as she led her boat in the dog fight. It was an extremely tight race coming into the last 500 meters. Katzner in tandem with her stroke, Hana Lee battled it out on the course. Grace Mickels rowed 7 seat, Catherine Cardone 6 seat, Sloane Keane 5 seat, Sophie Hart 4 seat, Norah Salami 3 seat, Lia Coats 2 seat and Harper Do in bow.

The Nationals qualifying boats continued after the lunch break with the U174+. Coxswain, Mishi Khamish led her 4+ to a silver finish. Khamish’s four finished with a time of 7:53.85, first place finisher Saugatuck a time of 7:49.09. We are extremely proud of our girls for battling it out till the end and cannot wait to see them do it all over again at Nationals in Florida! CBC continued the Regionals domination in the 2V4+ with two boats racing and both medaling. The B Boat was full of young magic and led the A final by open water until the last 300 meters. Of course in the sport of rowing it is always any boats race. Coxswain Maddy Scholl led the B boat to bronze medal and a ton of racing takeaways. Scholl’s leading ladies were Nora McGrath and Chloe Katzner in stern pair with Mila Lencyk and Norah Salami in bow pair. Connecticut’s A boat pushed out in front of the B boat in the sprint to finish 2 seconds ahead and 5 seconds behind first place finisher. Congratulations to Coxswain Jiah Baak for commanding her crew and steering her final high school regatta. Baak’s crew as composed of stroke seat Layla Morris, 3 seat Tanaya Dixit, 2 seat Emily Desrosiers and bow seat Caitlyn Getty.

The weekend wrapped up with another podium finish for the Novice 4+. This is a crew we have been following all spring long as they have been a force on the 2k course. Novice coxswain, Frida Allers coxed her heart out to finish the season with a medal around her neck. In every rowers second race of the day, Darien Freshman Catherine Cardone stroked her 4+ to a bronze medal supported by her other half, Sloane Keane (the two other wise known as Caloan). The fierce bow pair was led by Lia Coats in 2 seat and bowed by Junior superstar Jackie Elsener.

Congratulations to all 26 Connecticut Boat Club athletes that will represent the team, Norwalk and state of Connecticut at Nationals in Sarasota Florida in a few weeks. Live streaming will be available, so please tune in to support the girls.

What a weekend for Connecticut Boat Club! The girls raced in 16 events with many of the athletes competing in multiple categories both sweep and sculling. Freshman Gracie Mickels shared how the team as a whole focused on their individual boats this weekend. “I feel like we raced our hardest” said Mickels which certainly paid off for her as she finished the weekend on the podium with two medals!

Bowing her first sprint race in the Novice 4x, eighth grader from Westport Chloe Katzner shared her excitement to have led the boat to a gold medal. As the bow of this quad with no coxswain, Chloe was responsible for steering the boat (turning her head to look/using the buoy line), communicating to the rest of the crew the distance left, and making any calls she felt could help the boat win. It sounds like she did an incredible job as the crew took home the first place prize!

It was said by many of the athletes that the entire weekend in Mercer was full of high energy and positivity. Noelle Basta added to the positive remarks by sharing, “The vibes were up this weekend! One of my favorite moments was in my 2V8 race when we were down 6 seats and in the last 500 meters we took off. We knew that we had to place top 2 in order to go to the A final and with our 500 meter sprint we were able to walk through the Saugatuck boat and secure the A final.”

Congratulations to all of our girls and their competitors on a great racing weekend. Below is a summary of our team results.

• Novice 8+ 5th place
• Novice 4+ 2nd place
• Novice 4x 1st place
• Varsity 8 5th place
• Varsity 2V8 6th place
• Varsity 3V8 2nd place
• Varsity 4V8 3rd place
• Varsity 2V4x 2nd place
• Varsity 4+ 2nd place
• Varsity 2V4+ 3rd place
• Varsity 4x 2nd place
• Varsity 3V4+ 5th place
• U17 4+ 4th place
• Varsity 2- 3rd and 4th place
• Varsity 4- 3rd place
• U17 8+ 3rd place

Spring racing can only properly kick off in one place for CBC and that place is San Diego! Racing in the Youth Womens 8+ category has been a long standing tradition for all 15 generations of River Rats. It is a beloved race by our team as the girls love California, the venue, eating at in-n-out burger, and it’s the most sunshine the girls have seen in several months.

Winter 2026 in Connecticut was historically cold. Which means that the girls didn’t begin their on the water training until a few weeks prior to competing at the San Diego Crew Classic. As much as everyone would have loved a few more weeks of seat racing and water time at the end of the day, nothing really gets these girls monkeyed up (they are ready and up for any challenge)!

The 8+ had a great swing row practice on Friday giving Sophomore coxswain, Mishi Khamish the opportunity to run the course for the first time. Although young, Khamish has excelled in leading her boats across many finish lines in various East Coast venues. The opportunity to add her first West Coast course was something she was looking forward to. To which she delivered, the crew had a good and clean heats race on Saturday. Program Head Coach Liz Trond shared how the boat discussed their heats race and made their goal, tangible changes (improvements) for the B final on Sunday.

Northeastern commit Layla Sisca stroked the boat, a seat she is very comfortable dominating from. Working together with Khamish, they gave their crew outstanding leadership. Junior powerhouses Brooke LeBaron and Camilla Calderwood added tremendous speed to the boat in 7 and 6 seat. Emily Goertel and Skye Coats raced in the middle of the haul where their power and technique was critical to the boats success. Three fast seniors sat in bow 3 of the 8+ where they were the first to cross the finish line: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill commit, Christina Charnin (3 seat) and University of Boston commits, Norah Surette (2 seat) and Kamryn Morgenstern (1 seat).

Christina Charnin commented, ‘We had a great collective competitive mindset and I was happy to race my heart out!’ This reflection came hours after the B Finals race on Sunday. The River Rats had a strong start but they weren’t the only ones! CBC battled down the course with Saint Ignatius’s crew, giving the crowd at the beach more than one reason to cheer. Ultimately, CBC crossed the finish line first with a time of 7:15 (2 seconds ahead of Saint Ignatius). The crew was thrilled to have finished first in their final! Charnin continued, ‘Our finals race went well because we pinpointed what we wanted to work on and executed a great change in our ratio.’

The entire team will be back on the race course at the upcoming Mercer Sprints Regatta! Please continue to follow/support our team on social media.

See you next year, San Diego! Congratulations to all crews!

Welcome to Fall 2025 racing River Rats fan club! The girls kicked off the official racing season with the Head of the Housatonic last weekend. Although the small boats races were canceled due to bad Shelton CT storms the four and eight boat races remained unaffected. The Housatonic line-ups ultimately ended up being the Head of the Charles (HOCR) line-ups. The athletes mentioned how great of a foundation last weekend served leading into the highly anticipated weekend in Boston MA!

There were many races to watch for the CBC followers as current, alumni and coaches raced the famous Charles River this weekend. The 3-day largest international regatta kicked off for CBC fans on Saturday with 4 CBC alums racing the Club 8 category for each of their respective universities. 2025 Captain, Izzy Khamish (Princeton Freshman) steered the Club 8 to a 7th place finish and absolutely nailed every turn on the Charles River! This event felt like a Class of 2024 reunion for Ava Weneck (Harvard), Lila Seidenberg (Drexel) and Callaghan Nickerson (Boston College). With I.Khamish’s crew winning best time overall for the alums, Callaghan Nickerson raced fiercely in her BC 7 seat and finished 2 seconds after I.Khamish’s Princeton boat. Nickerson and I.Khamish won the Head of the Charles together as CBC teammates in 2023. Lila and Ava’s boats led the times for the middle of the pack in this event (Drexel finished 1 second ahead of Harvard). Seidenberg dominated from 6 seat while Weneck mastered the craft of 2 seat and helped her boat move from 42nd place to finishing 25th overall! Varsity Coach, Mitz Carr not only raced but won first place in the Directors’ Challenge Mixed Quad. Carr supported her stroke seat with her power and blade strike in 3 seat. Two CBC legendary River Rat Captains, Meg Galloway (Yale Alum) and Bridget Galloway (Harvard Alum) raced as well in the Mixed Quad event along with their brother, Liam Galloway and amazing mother, Colleen Galloway!

“It was my first HOCR! It was so exciting and I couldn’t be more proud of my boat!” Shared Mishi Khamish as her boat kicked off the High School River Rats racing on Sunday. M.Khamish’s first time down the course was definitely a classic HOCR thriller…yielding calls, 4 boats under Anderson at the same time, blades 5 inches away from the bridge and starboard pressure calls. Following in her two older sisters foot steps, she steered a course that her boat was proud of. M.Khamish’s U17 4+ was stroked by Emily Goertel, 3 seat Leighton Busby, 2 seat Brooke LeBaron and bowed by Noelle Basta. The crew started 22nd this year and after passing boats and taking inside turns they finished in 7th place (fastest on the Norwalk River and in Connecticut!)

The morning continued with the Youth Coxed Quads race. The CBC quad was driven by Senior Coxswain, Jiah Baak, stroked by senior captain Sophia Kearns, 3 seat powerhouse Christina Charnin, 2 seat junior boat mover Skye Coats, and bow seat force Katie Estabrook. The crew came off of an amazing gold medal finish last weekend at the Head of the Housatonic. Baak is an incredible senior leader and led this boat to a strong start and a strong finish! The River Rats finished 3rd against Connecticut crews and 25th overall in the event. We will miss this boat (almost) full of seniors next year but are so proud of them.

In the third and final CBC event, Junior coxswain Allison Murray led the Varsity 4+ to an 11th place finish. Murray shared with excitement, “I AM SO HAPPY” after the race where fans watched her perfect peel off of the big turn and into the Eliot Bridge. The crew was stroked by senior captain, Layla Sisca for the 2nd year in a row. This year, with more experience and confidence in the stroke seat Sisca led the boat to an outstanding finish after starting in bow 15. Layla was supported by 3 seat Norah Surette, 2 seat Camilla Calderwood and senior captain Kam Morgenstern in bow. Sisca shared, “The race went great. It was fun getting to come off the start line and immediately close in on another boat. Getting to pass another boat that early on in the race helped us with our momentum during the rest of the race.”

All of the River Rats bleed green forever but Class of 2024 alums Caroline Krantz and Annika Nelson bleed green 2x as they represented Dartmouth College in the Women’s Championship 8 event. Not only did these two Dartmouth sophomores earn their seat in Dartmouth’s top boat but they are back to the high school days of being stern pair, pair partners!! The Big Green girls finished 5th in the College Championship Category. After not making the trip up to Boston last year, Duke University made a strong return to the Head of the Charles this year. The legendary High School teammates Sophia Greco (Duke Senior Rower) and Mia Khamish (Duke Senior Coxswain) took the Women’s Championship 8 by storm! Mia last raced the event in October 2023 when she won a gold medal for Duke. Starting with bow 22 this year (last to start the head race) she quickly started to make her move and steer her best line. Mia and Sophia led their Varsity 8 to a 10th place finish in the College Championship Category ahead of both Rhode Island University and Fordham University, and only 1 second behind Northeastern (whom the Charles River is their home course).

Yes, you read this correctly for the first time in Head of the Charles history, there were 3 coxswain sisters racing on the same weekend! CBC is notorious for starting trends and I suppose this is our newest one. The girls loved seeing/supporting US Rowing National Team athletes, Erin Reelick (CBC Class of 2012, Princeton Alum) and Kaitlyn Kynast (CBC Class of 2017, Stanford Alum). As always, this weekend brings together multiple generations of River Rats, it is full of hugs, lessons learned, world class racing and hard work paying off in multiple ways.

We are back on the race course next weekend at the Head of the Fish!