Women's crew heads to Bean Town for Head Of The Charles Regatta

Oct. 21, 2004
MARIETTA, Ohio - The women's Pioneer Navy travels to Boston, MA this weekend (Oct. 23-24) to compete at the 40th annual Head Of The Charles Regatta.

Marietta's Varsity Eight will enter the Championship Eight race, the final race of the regatta, to be held on Sunday (Oct. 24) at 3:25 p.m.

"We are anticipating a fast race and closing the gap on teams from last fall," said coach Karen Glowacki. "The ladies are just one of three DIII (Colby College and Smith College are the others) to be in this world class race...It will be a good experience and confidence builder for our team."

Marietta will start 36th in the race for The Governor's Trophy, which has a field of 41, which was on by the London Training Center in 2003.

The Lady Pioneers sit from bow Megan Rogers (Allison Park, PA), Meg Foraker (New Lexington), Corrine Mees (Oxford), Amanda Stoner (Toledo), Becca Stewart (Indiana, PA), Rosa Hanks (Raleigh, NC), Dorothy Klaiber (Toledo), stroke Lindsay Letterle (Glenshaw, PA) and coxswain Meredith Rogers (Allison Park, PA).

Marietta Varsity Eight is looking forward to Sunday’s race against the fastest crews in the nation, as well as two of the three medalists in the Athens Olympics.

"Colby and Smith are two of the top teams in Division III," added Glowacki. "It is our goal to scare them with a fast time and let them know that Marietta will be someone to look out for this spring."

The 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 audience 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 40 years, the Head Of The Charles regatta has grown tremendously. Today, more than 7,000 athletes from around the world compete in 24 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.

This will be the final fall race for the Varsity Eight. The rest of the team is competing Sunday at the Head of the Muskingum in Marietta.