Oct. 20, 2013
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – One year after placing two boats in the top 15 of two races at the event, the University of Notre Dame rowing team saw each of its entries claim top-10 finishes Sunday at the 49th Head of the Charles Regatta on the Charles River. One of the largest rowing regattas in the world, the two-day competition featured more than 1,000 top international and collegiate rowing crews competing in 55 different events.
The Notre Dame boat in the women’s championship eight race shaved more than 20 seconds off its effort of 17:21.23 last year to place 6th in the 39-team field. The Irish crew of coxswain Christina Dines, Ailish Sheehan, Erin Boxberger, Molly Bruggeman, Stella Willoughby, Ellen Gleadow, Anna Kottkamp, Joanna Mulvey, and Courtney Gaberino traversed the course in 16:58.595, and was one of only six boats to break the 17-minute mark. Notre Dame was also the third collegiate crew to cross the finish line, just behind perennial national contender and fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia (16:36.529, fourth place) and Yale (16:48.112, fifth place).
The Cambridge Boat Club (15:59.549) avenged its 2012 runner-up finish in the event against the top launch from the United States Rowing team (16:00.750), edging the 2012 Olympic gold medalist by 1.2 seconds for the race victory. The London Training Center (16:16.336) was the other top-five finisher after crossing the line in third place.
Earlier in the day in the women’s championship four, Notre Dame clocked a near one minute improvement off its time of 20:09.96 from the 2012 race, placing seventh out of 21 teams. Coxswain Alex Techar, Teresa Rubinger, Kiersten DeHaven, Elizabeth Kelley, and Rose Doerfler logged a cumulative time of 19:22.544, finishing behind third place Brown (18:57.561) and sixth place Navy (19:12.227) among U.S. collegiate entries.
USRowing swept the top two spots in the championship four event, with its ‘A’ entry taking the win in 18:02.219.
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