Sports crew

MIT crew won various accolades at the Head of the Charles

Men’s Heavyweight Collegiate 8+ came first while Women’s Lightweight 4 came second overall

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The Men's Heavyweight Club 8+ departs the start line in the Head of the Charles Regatta Saturday.
Ben Kettle–The Tech

Various teams from MIT crew took part at the 55th Head of the Charles Regatta, the largest two-day rowing competition in the world. This year the competition consisted of about 11,000 rowers from various colleges, schools, ages, and levels. Amongst all these spheres were the MIT varsity crew teams. 

Amongst the most successful crew teams were the Men’s Heavyweight Collegiate 8+ team, which captured first position with a time of 14:25.901, which was a comfortable 3.219 seconds ahead of runner-up. The team consisted of Ben Koenig ’21, Max von Franque ’22, James Greer ’22, Cooper Jones ’22, Orrie Page ’22, Rob Cancio ’23, Peter Scott ’23, Deniz Sert ’23, and cox Alex Meredith ’21. The other team with a medal was the Women’s Lightweight 4, which finished second overall with a time of 18:06.346 finishing just 8.425 seconds behind British Columbia. The team consisted of Brigid Bane ’20, Haley Higginbotham ’21, Jaime Cook ’22, Kathleen Love ’23, and cox Jennifer Nwenyi ’20. 

Other MIT participants included the Men’s Heavyweight Club 4+ Crew, which ranked 18th in their race out of 55 crews; Men’s Lightweight 4+ and 8+ Crews, which ranked 14th and 15th place respectively; Women’s Openweight Crews, which ranked in the top 10 for both club eights and club singles; and the Women’s Lightweight 8s which finished eighth in their race.    

This regatta was the 2019-20 debut for most crews who will continue their season at various other regattas like the Head of the Fish on Oct. 26 in Saratoga Springs, NY.