Although most of Milwaukee has probably never heard of Boston’s Head of the Charles regatta, crew teams throughout the country had anticipated the event for months. With 7,500 athletes in attendance, it is North America’s largest regatta and the largest fall regatta in the world. Each year, 300,000 spectators travel to Boston to attend the event. Crew teams come from the United States, Canada, Europe and even Asia to compete in 26 different races, ranging in size from one-man to eight-man boats. Of the 7,500 competitors, 24 came from the Marquette club crew team: 12 women rowers, eight male rowers and four coxswains. After 18 hours of bus travel and one day of practice, Marquette shined in competition. Marquette entered boats in four events and was incredibly successful throughout the entire regatta. On Oct. 20, Marquette entered two boats in the competition, one in the Men’s Collegiate four and one in the Women’s Collegiate four. The men’s team took fifth place with an overall time only 3.14 percent behind the leader. The women’s team took seventh, with a time only 4.05 percent behind the winning team. Because both boats had a finishing time within five percent of the winning time, they automatically received a bid to return to the event next year.

On Oct. 21, Marquette had a Lightweight Men’s four and a Collegiate Women’s eight. The lightweight men finished within 10.29 percent of the top boat’s time, and the women finished within 10.53 percent.

Unlike much of its competition, the Marquette crew team is a club sport. Most of its members did not begin rowing until their freshmen year. With that said, Marquette’s high finish is incredibly significant. Many of the competitors are Division 1 teams that recruit students to row. Some of the schools Marquette competed against at the Head of the Charles were: Boston College, Colgate, Northwestern, Bucknell, Penn State, Yale, Brown University and Princeton. There were also international crews among the competition including Ottawa Rowing Club, Undine Barge Club and King’s Crown Rowing Association.

The results and lineups from the event can be found at the Charles’ Web site: www.hocr-timing.org/results/results_schedule.shtml.

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