George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Head of the Charles (Women)
Rowing Competes at Head of the Charles
10/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Crew
Oct. 23, 2001
BOSTON, MA (Oct. 21, 2001) - The GW men's and women's rowing teams headed to Boston this past weekend to race at the 37th Head of the Charles Regatta. Collegiate crews from all over the U.S. and Canada were represented at the regatta, as well as a few national team crews.
Warm but windy conditions proved challenging for the athletes. The course winds through Boston/Cambridge for over three miles on the Charles River. Crews have to navigate through five bridges, handle difficult turns, all while attempting to pass other crews and avoid any collisions. The results are determined which crew can race the three mile course in the shortest amount of time. Thousands of spectators lined the shore for the full three miles to watch as the crews race by, making this the largest single-day event in the sport of rowing.
Summary of Results of the GW Crews
Men's Championship 8 (a total of 40 entries)
Won by the US National Team in a time of 14:09.4
Top collegiate crew finished 3rd - Harvard in a time of 14:28.2
GW Varsity Men finished 35th with a time of 16:06.1
Women's Championship 8 (total of 54 entries)
Won by the US National Team in a time of 16:01.6
Top collegiate crew finished 2nd - Princeton in a time 16:10.8
GW Varsity Women finished 32nd with a time of 17:42.9
Men's Championship 4 (a total of 29 entries)
Won by the US National Team in a time of 15:45.1
Top collegiate crew finished 5th - Princeton in a time of 16:35.7
GW Varsity Men finished 27th with a time of 19:09.1
Women's Championship 4 (a total of 31 entries)
Won by the German National Team in a time of 18:22.8
Top collegiate crew finished 4th - Univ. of Michigan in a time of 18:44.4
GW Varsity Women finished 27th with a time of 20:21.4
For complete results you can visit the Head of the Charles website at: http://www.hocr.org/compete/innerresults.html
"I feel the results this weekend were good for the women's crews," GW head coach Steve Peterson said. "We improved in the Championship 8 over last year's perfomance by more than 10 places. In addition, if you look at our results from the Head of the Potomac several weeks ago, we lost to Navy by almost 30 seconds, and we had lost to Georgetown. This weekend, we closed the gap on Navy to only nine seconds and we turned the tables on Georgetown beating them by four seconds. So I feel we are moving in the right direction."
"This fall has been difficult on the team because of all of the distractions we have been facing. The Potomac River was closed for a week after the incidents of September 11th and then we lost another five days of practice during the World Bank protests. So we are pretty far behind most of the other crews around the country in terms of practice time. So our results this weekend bode well for us. There is still a lot of improvement to be made, but the crews are already rowing significantly better than in previous years, even with the limited practice time."
"Our 32nd place finish in the Championship 8 put us in the top 30 collegiate crews in the country - so that isn't a bad place to start. Our goal was to be in the top 20, but our lack of water time had us racing at a lower stroke rate (number of strokes taken per minute) than most crews. With time, we will raise our rating and we should be right in there with the top 20 crews in the country by the time the spring season rolls around."
Added GW Men's Coach Gene Kininmonth, "We have a lot more talent and depth, but we did not open the season as we would have liked to."
Next up for the GW men's and women's rowing teams is the Princeton Chase, Oct. 27, in Princeton, NJ.
