Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke Athletics.
Mount Holyoke Rowing placed 24th in the Head of the Charles Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023.
By Emily Tarinelli ’25
Sports Editor
Mount Holyoke College Rowing stormed to 24th place in the Women’s Collegiate Eights competition, hosted as part of the renowned Head of the Charles Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 22.
Described as “quite a spectacle” by team member Meghan French ’24, the Head of the Charles clocks in as the largest three-day rowing event in the world. According to Boston 25 News, the race attracted 11,000 rowers and 400,000 spectators to the riverfront and included several racing categories.
These ranged from collegiate to club classifications, a para-athletic bracket and various age groups ranging from high school to competitors over 80 years old.
The Lyons’ boat, which consisted of French, Emma Waldron ’24, Celeste Keep ’24, Lilla Carroll ’25, Gwyneth Munroe ’26, Katrina Holbrook ’27, Jillian Slatch ’25, Mack Windus ’24 and coxswain Tobin Mayo-Kiely ’26, finished the race in 19:28.509 minutes — four seconds ahead of the University of Rochester.
Tufts University claimed the winning title in 18:03.969 minutes, while the University of Calgary from Canada placed second, Trinity College placed third and neighborhood rival Smith College placed fourth.
With a total of 75 races in three days, with each day starting at 7:45 a.m. and the last boats pushing off at 4 p.m, the Head of the Charles overflowed with college students across all three divisions, WBUR reported.
“Before the race, walking around the area was quite chaotic,” French recalled, noting that teams flooded into the Charles from across the nation and around the world. “On the water, I felt much more focused.”
Waldron said that the Lyons persevered through challenging weather conditions to find a steady rhythm on course. “At some points, the wind was so strong it knocked us off course. Our oars clashed on the walls of Weeks Bridge, which is a notoriously difficult turn to make,” they said. “I’m still really proud of us, and I think we have a really strong foundation going into winter training to get ready for the spring season.”
French said that out of the three Head of the Charles races she competed in, this one topped them all.
“It’s satisfying to close out my senior fall season with it,” she said. “Most of the time during the race, it was quiet around us and all I had to listen to was our coxswain.” But when the Lyons neared the Elliot Bridge on the course, “I got amped [up] by the cheering, especially the ones I could make out from my own teammates, giving me an extra push to keep the engine going.”
The Head of the Charles race is 4,702 meters long, starting at the Boston University Dewolfe Boathouse and ending near Christian A. Herter Park. The Elliot Bridge is the last of seven bridges along the course, a landmark for rowers nearing the end of their race.
The teammates who cheered from the riverbank, Waldron said, were also hard at work over the weekend, competing in a scrimmage hosted by Williams College on Lake Onota just a day before the Head of the Charles.
“Everyone has been working really hard to get stronger and faster,” Waldron said of their teammates.
“We were really excited to see our hard work pay off at Williams,” Caroline Odlin-Brewer ’24, who raced in the event, said.
The Head of the Charles concluded Rowing’s fall season. Competition will pick up again in the spring with a regatta against Skidmore College on Saturday, April 6, 2024.
“Overall, I’m happy with the execution this weekend and hope that the team is motivated to get to work training indoors this winter so that we can go even faster during our spring season,” Head Coach Cara Murphy said.