In their first major competitions of the year, the three Dartmouth crew programs competed in the Head of the Charles Regatta, Sunday in Cambridge, Mass. The Big Green brought a total of four eight-seat boats to the races, which included the men's heavyweight and lightweight varsity eights, and the first and second varsity women's boats.
Since its inaugural year in 1965, the Head of the Charles has grown to be the largest rowing regatta in the world, with this year's race featuring 8,479 rowers in 1,786 boats. Fifty-six separate events were held over the course of the weekend.
Dartmouth's teams were among elite competition, with opposing rowers representing 38 states and 19 countries.
There were a total of 215 international entries, making up nearly 12 percent of the competition, not the least of which featured national teams from Great Britain, Canada and Turkey.
The course of the Charles is infamously difficult to navigate, forcing rowers to deal with narrow bridge underpasses and other obstacles. In addition to the shape, it spans nearly three miles, significantly longer than the standard 2,000-meter course of a collegiate dual race.
"It's basically from the [Boston University] boat house all the way down to the Northeastern one," Kate Harney '09, captain of the women's crew, said.
Fall races are formatted differently from those held in the spring. Like the Charles, the fall courses are almost always longer than their spring counterparts and are not always set up in the traditional head-to-head format.
The races were staged as time trials, with different boats starting at staggered intervals. This structure contributes to hectic racing conditions, with many boats vying for position on the winding Charles River.
"The Charles is always a little bit of a circus," heavyweight captain Sandy Hull '09 said.
Dartmouth's first and second women's varsity crews competed in the women's Championship Eights division on Sunday, and because of the Big Green's finishes last year, the boats started in the 16th and 19th positions, respectively.
Because of the difficulty of the course, the coxswains for the women's team held a large responsibility for the Big Green. Cathy Yao '10 successfully navigated the first boat throughout the Charles, while Anna Dobbin '11 steered the varsity two.
"There were no buoys, ducks or bridges hit," Harney said. "This is a very coxswain-based race, and a good one can shave up to 10 seconds off your time. They did a great job, and we felt that both boats raced really good races."
The first varsity boat finished 19th overall, completing the course in 17:14:190, while the second varsity maintained the balance to finish 22nd, finishing in 17:20:704.
The Big Green women were satisfied with their results, given the amount of practice time they had this fall in comparison with other teams.
"It's hard to go into a race knowing that you've only been practicing for three weeks, and other teams have been doing it for months," Harney said. "It's cool to be able to compete with crews like that."
Over 300,000 fans line the shore of the Charles to watch the world's largest rowing event, adding even more distractions for the rowers.
Harney stressed the importance of a good stroke to set the pace for the boat in such conditions. She gave credit to Kathryn Twyman '09 for stroking the first varsity crew and Courtney Chapel '11 for pacing the second varsity.
The crew from London Training Center blew the competition away, winning the event in 16:02:507 and over 12 seconds ahead of ASR Nereus.
Also on Sunday afternoon, the Dartmouth men's lightweight crew competed in the Lightweight Eights championship. The Big Green started in ninth position, but the crew was unable to put forth its best time, finishing in 21st place in time trial.
Hampered by a lack of training time in comparison to opposing crews, the lightweight men were forced to compete against the likes of the Turkish and Canadian national teams, who sandwiched the Big Green in its starting position.
In addition, lightweight coxswain Allison Moe '09 took an aggressive turn in hopes of passing the Harvard eight, resulting in contact and eventually a one-minute penalty, pushing Dartmouth's final finishing-time back to 15:48:416.
Princeton University cruised to a win in the Lightweight Eights, crossing the finish line in 14:46:757, more than 12 seconds faster than second-place Queen's University.
In the 38-boat field in the men's Championship Eights, the Dartmouth heavyweight crew team navigated the course in 15:41:645, good enough for 31st place overall.
"I don't think we had the race we wanted to have," Hull said. "Even though it's really early in the season and we haven't been racing that much, I still think we had more potential."
Like Harney, Hull praised coxswain Greg Rolfes '09 for his job of captaining the Big Green crew through the often hectic conditions on the Charles.
"We put a special rudder on the boat to navigate, and Greg did a really good job," Hull said. "We raced as smooth a race as anyone. It just wasn't our best effort."
The University of Washington showed why it is considered one of the best crews in the nation, winning the Championship Eight in 14:28:087 -- more than a full second ahead of Brown University.
Hull, who stroked the boat, is optimistic about the crew's outlook for the rest of the season.
"We did about as well last year as we did this weekend, but we are a much better team this year," he said. "We are lucky to have another chance next week against a lot of the same crews we saw this weekend."
All three Dartmouth crews will look to improve upon their times against Ivy League opponents at the Princeton Chase on Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26 in Princeton, N.J.
