George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Head of the Charles
Rowing Competes at Head of the Charles
10/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
Oct. 26, 2004
BOSTON, MA -- The GW men's and women's crews began their Fall racing seasons this past weekend in Boston for the 39th running of the Head of the Charles Regatta. The race covers three miles as the Charles River winds through the heart of Boston. Thousands of competitors travel from all over the globe to compete for the title of "Head of the Charles" in one of the 43 events. Tens of thousands of spectators lined the shores for the full three miles making the Head of the Charles the largest two-day rowing event in the world.
The Colonials raced in the Men's Championship Eight race which features top universities from around the world not to mention Olympic level crews from Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands and the U.S. The GW Varsity Men consisted of coxswain Amy Garrison, Joe Deleo, Henry Roosevelt, Matt Brady, Oliver Blodgett, Justin Luther, Alex Cashman, Pete Magee and Mike Mancusi-Ungaro. The rowers were very eager to test their speed against crews of this caliber.
"I've only got two seniors in that boat," said GW varsity coach Matt Boyle, "and there are four freshmen, also, so it is a very inexperienced group. I thought it was important for them to use their youth as an advantage and row very aggressively early in the race. I think they accomplished that."
The race was won by Cambridge University of England in a time of 10:43, GW finished 25th out of 37 crews with a time of 11:43. "If you compare this result to what we did at this race last year, you can see we took a step forward. Last year we finished 37th out of 41 crews. These guys have improved very steadily," said Boyle.
The GW women placed 34th of 42 entries in the Women's Championship Eight. The Colonials completed the course in 13:21.802 beating Bostoin College by five seconds and Georgetown by seven seconds.
"Considering the young age of the team, there were seven sophmores in the boat, it was a respectable performance," GW varsity women's coach Helen Betancourt said. "We are using the fall racing to gain experience for the spring season."
Next up for the Colonials will be this Saturday, Oct. 30, as the team travels to Philadelphia for the the Head of the Schuylkill regatta.
For complete results for this and other events visit the official Head of the Charles website at: http://www.hocr.org
For complete results visit the row2k website at: http://row2k.com/results/resultspage.cfm?UID=913895&cat=2
