Thousands of people, rowers and spectators alike, flocked to the Charles River in Boston this past Sunday for the 31st annual Head of the Charles Rowing Regatta.
About 4,500 of the world's top rowers enjoyed cloudless skies and water conditions unusually calm for the Charles as they raced down the three-mile course which winds between Cambridge and Boston past Harvard University.
The Dartmouth women's crew team was represented at the regatta by two eights: a youth eight comprised of rowers 19 and under, and a championship eight made up of members of the women's varsity squad.
The champ eight finished 17th in a field of 33 boats, while the youth eight placed 15th in a field of 24 boats.
The Charles course passes under six bridges from start to finish, making it an exciting and at times dangerous challenge for the coxswains of the boats.
Coach Barb Kirch said her champ eight rowed well, but said "results-wise, I wasn't very happy."
Co-Captain Kim Sanderson '96 said the race wasn't very satisfying for her. "We were definitely disappointed. We thought we were faster than 17th."
Much of this had to do with the difficulty of navigating the course. "It's easy to get boxed in by other coxswains," Kirch said.
Since the start of the race is staggered, the boats sometimes overtake one another. Coxswains can try and force other crews to take a longer course and thus add seconds to their time.
Coupled with the intrinsic difficulty of the Charles course was the unusually fierce competition from other boats in the champ eight category. Among the boats in the field were national teams from the U.S., Canada and Holland.
"The field was tremendously fast this year," Kirch said. "It's easy to get stuck in a little pocket" between two other boats which forces a crew to slow down, she said.
The youth eight took advantage of pressure from the University of Pennsylvania and rowed a strong race according to Kristin Heist '99. "We had a very strong finish," she said.
For now the women are looking forward to the Head of the Fish regatta this weekend and the Princeton Chase in the first part of November.
