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While Boston College's hockey and football teams battled on ice and turf, two other high-caliber BC teams headed to the Charles River to conduct their own business on the water. On Saturday and Sunday, the BC men's club rowing team and the BC women's varsity team competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles regatta.
This year marked the 44th year of the Head of the Charles, the largest two-day rowing event in the world. Over 7,500 competitors participate in 55 different races, and the regatta draws some of the greatest teams and competitors from across the globe. Over 300,000 spectators typically flock to the Charles to watch the two-day event from the sides of the river and from the five bridges along the course, which winds 3.2 miles upriver from the Boston University DeWolfe Boathouse to the Artesani Playground in Brighton.
This year, over 8,200 rowers from 17 different countries participated in the regatta. The race included 250 former and current Olympians and National Team members, including the U.S. gold medalist women's eight team, fresh from its triumph at the Beijing Olympics. Also featured in Saturday's races was Olympian Mahe Drysdale, a three-time world singles champion from New Zealand, considered by many to be one of the premier rowing figures of his time.
The BC women's varsity crew team entered the race backed by a growing program filled with new rowers. Led by coach Steve Fiske, the BC women's crew team competed in both fours and eights teams into this weekend's regatta, finishing 16th in the club eight women while Yale's women's team placed first. The team continued into the highly competitive women's championships eights and placed 29th, and also placed 19th in the club fours.
The BC men's team, dubbed the "Screaming Eagles" by one announcer, also raced in the men's collegiate fours, and placed 19th in Event 41 in the collegiate eights. Near the end of Sunday's events, the men's championship eights featured some of the strongest squads of the weekend. The University of Washington won the 37 draw race to help cap off an exciting weekend at the regatta.
The Head of the Charles is traditionally the end of most teams' fall seasons, and marks the 21st year of BC's rowing team, which was founded in 1987. Since then it has become a force within New England, and even in national competitions.
The program depends in part upon Community Rowing Inc. (CRI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to making rowing available to the Boston area. Harvard coach Harry Parker has worked with the program to help bring it to national prominence and make it one of the largest rowing programs in the United States. "Community Rowing is greatly important in the rowing community and opens up the sport of rowing to almost anyone who wants to learn or compete," Parker said.
Since the men's team, which works out of the CRI boathouse, is a student-run club program, there are no scholarships offered to BC men's crew members. The team, though, is considered one of the "teams to beat" in New England, with fall races that traditionally consist of the Head of the Charles and the Princeton Chase, and invitational regatta hosted by Princeton University that attracts the top rowing schools in the country.
Besides the weekend's Head of the Charles, BC participates in key races near the end of its spring season. The New England championship has always been a successful event for BC rowing, as the team consistently places well; it often makes it to the grand finals, the New England four championship where the team won the men's Division Points Trophy for best overall men's team in 2006.
The team has also participated in the Dad Vail Regatta, a national championship that is the largest intercollegiate regatta in the world. Rival squads at Dad Vail include Fordham University, Purdue, Colgate, and Georgia Tech. Through 2004-2005, BC crew repeated as champions in the men's varsity lightweight eight at Dad Vail, and in 2007 the men's varsity four placed third.
John Murtagh, president of the rowing team and A&S '09, said that while the team may not be an official varsity team, it is more than capable of competing with the teams at other schools. BC rowing has achieved a winning record against competitive and well-funded varsity programs, such as Holy Cross. "Whether the team is a club or a varsity program varies, but BC's results against these schools never do," Murtagh said "We like to say that we are a club program that trains and competes at a varsity level."
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