Rowing to race at Head of the Charles

All three of Columbia’s rowing teams will be racing this Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass.

In its first race of the season, the women’s rowing squad took fourth place of seven in the varsity eight race on the four-mile course at the Poughkeepsie Regatta on Oct. 3. The Light Blue defeated Army, Vassar, and Marist with a time of 26:34.29. The Lions finished behind Cornell, Syracuse, and Penn.

The women’s team will be racing at the Head of the Charles Regatta for the first time since 2006, after declining to compete the last two years.

The men’s heavyweight team also opened the fall season at the Poughkeepsie Regatta on Oct. 3, finishing fourth of five teams behind Cornell, Army, and Marist, respectively. They finished with a time of 24:42.07, over a minute behind Cornell. The Light Blue will be competing against the Big Red again in Boston.

Last year at the Head of the Charles Regatta, the heavyweights finished 23rd of 37 teams, after hitting a buoy which added a 20-second penalty to their time of 15:04.514, which would have put them in ninth place. University of Washington and Brown, who took the top spots last year, will be making an appearance again this year at the regatta on Sunday.

The men’s lightweight varsity eight will also be facing Cornell this weekend on the Charles in its first race this fall season. Last year the lightweights finished 10th of 21 teams on the Charles River, beating Princeton by four seconds with a time of 15:22.43, and also beating Penn, Harvard, and Dartmouth with a time of 15:22.43. They will be facing Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Penn again this year, along with Yale and the United States Naval Academy, which took second place last year.

The regatta is scheduled for this Sunday, with the lightweight varsity eight race opening the action at 3:09 p.m.