This past weekend, the Irish joined over 11,000 athletes and tens of thousands of fans from around the world for the 53rd annual Head Of The Charles Regatta in Boston.
Coached by Martin Stone, Notre Dame raced three boats and an Alumni boat in the regatta. Two of these boats qualified based on last year’s times, and the third qualified by lottery.
To begin the weekend, the Club 4 team of junior Ashley Young, senior Lauren McKee, senior Meredith Swartz and sophomore Julia Randall finished eighth overall with a time of 18:43.178.
“Our Club 4 placed competitively,” Stone said. “Last year we were able to place third, but for the overall scheme of things, we’ll have to see where we are against teams like Ohio State, Syracuse and Michigan to get a better understanding of where we are boat-speed wise.”
The next day, the Championship Four placed 12th out of 16 teams. Sophomore Mara Bhalla, junior Gen Johanni, junior Kelly Fischer, junior Molly Pierce and sophomore coxswain Laura Schoonmaker finished with a time of 18:27.243.
The Championship 8 crew captured 26th place with a time of 16:05.609. This crew consisted of senior Treasa O’Tighearnaigh, sophomore Emily Stinebaugh, junior Elizabeth Schrieber, junior Laura Migliore, senior Lauren Matchett, senior Christine Schindele-Murayama, junior Jennifer Groth, senior Elizabeth Gilbert and senior coxswain Reilly Kearney.
“Overall it was a great experience for our athletes to be a part of the amazing celebration of rowing,” said Stone. “The whole Charles river has people stacked up for three miles, and to be able to represent the University of Notre Dame was such a pleasure.”
This event marks the end of the fall season of rowing and transitions to the winter training season. Stone said, “This winter we are going to train really hard to get really fit. We want to be as good as we possibly can to move as fast as we possibly can.”
The main season of rowing is in the spring, for which Stone, with nearly two decades of coaching at Notre Dame behind him, said their expectations are simply to work hard and be fast.
