Marietta men making their return to the Head Of The Charles this weekend
Pioneer Navy's Varsity 8 will take on the nation's best in the three-mile headrace

Oct. 19, 2006
MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College men's rowing team travels to Boston, Mass., this weekend (Oct. 21-22) to compete at the 42nd annual Head Of The Charles Regatta. The Pioneer Navy will sends its Varsity 8 to compete against the nation's elite in the Championship Eight race to be held on Sunday (Oct. 22) at 4:10 p.m.

"We are very excited to be returning to the Head Of The Charles after a one-year absence," said Pioneer Head Coach Chris Pucella. "It is another great opportunity for Marietta College to test its strength against the sport's top schools."

Marietta will race its Quantum shell with the same lineup as at the Head of the Genesee—stroke Chuck Geyer (Springfield, Va./West Springfield), Eric Dowler (Washington, W.Va./Parkersburg South), Mike Ross (Fairport, N.Y.), Andrew Norris (Dublin/Dublin Scioto), Mitch Paskawych (Marietta), Chase Graham (Mineral Wells, W.Va./Parkersburg South), Jon Carlon (Winter Park, Fla.), bow Zach Stimart (McLean, Va.) and coxswain Lydia Easterling (Tallmadge).

In addition to the traditional goal of finishing ahead of usual competitors Dowling, Georgetown, George Washington, Marist, Navy, St. Joseph's and Temple, the Pioneers, who finished 35th in 2004 and 23rd in 2003, have the added goal of placing in the top 15. Competition will be tough, with the likes of Brown, California-Berkley, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale leading the field of 43.

"The men have been working very hard all fall, even producing faster 6K scores than last year," Pucella said. "We will use this weekend as a gauge and then go back to work trying to get better each day that we take the water.h

While Marietta's current Varsity 8 will be competing in the final event of the weekend, there will be a distinct Pioneer Navy flavor in the very first race\the Grand-Master Singles 50+. Three Marietta College alums will be racing in the event, which is set to kickoff the regatta at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday (Oct. 21). Wiley Wakeman '73 is representing the Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass., and seeded 51st in the 73-man field. Peter Gross '75, who is rowing for the Narragansett Boat Club in Rumford, R.I., will start in the 61st position. In addition, Fred Elliott '76 will compete under the flagship of the Kent School Boat Club in Darien, Conn.

Peter Stanislaw '77 will also be rowing at the Head Of The Charles. Stanislaw will be in the Master Eights 40+ event and racing for Alexandria Community Rowing in Alexandria, Va. His races is slated for 2:02 p.m. on Saturday. A couple of more recent alums—Andrew Bolton '02, Luke Agnini '02 and Matt Henwood '05—are also expected to be competing at the regatta; their specific details were not known at the time of this article.

While Sunday is race day for Marietta, the men and women's team will have a chance to meet Pioneer Navy alums and friends of Marietta rowing in a special Alumni event on Saturday. The gathering will take place at the Harpoon Brewery (www.harpoonbrewery.com) from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Head Of The Charles Regatta, the world's largest two-day rowing event, was first held on October 16, 1965. The race was established by the Cambridge Boat Club members D'Arcy MacMahon, Howard McIntyre, and Jack Vincent, with the advice of Harvard University sculling instructor Ernest Arlett. Arlett proposed that a "head of the river" race similar in tradition to races held in his native England, be held on the Charles River. "Head" races, a class of regattas, are generally three miles long, boats race against each other and the clock, starting sequentially approximately fifteen seconds apart. Winners of each race receive the honorary title of "Head of the River" or, in this case, "Head Of The Charles."

Over the past 42 years, the Head Of The Charles regatta has grown tremendously. Today, more than 7,500 athletes from around the world compete in 26 different race events. The Regatta grew to a two-day event in 1997 and now attracts up to 300,000 spectators during the October weekend.