Bowdoin College Rowing

After sweeping the varsity fours events at New Englands the Bowdoin Navy headed to Philadelphia for the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta and iced the season’s  cake with  with three crews advancing to the semis,  a silver medal for the women in the D-2/3 Varsity Four, and lessons learned in Lane 0.

Coxswain Bonnie Cao ’13 drove her crew of stroke Caroline Ciocca ’12, Heather Kinnear ’12, Courtney Payne ’15, and Katie Ross ’14 to a photo finish with Philadelphia University while a strong Nova SE crew won by 4 seconds.  This Bowdoin crew demonstrated the heart  of the whole team with a determined and powerful sprint that just never backed down from the challenge.  This silver  extends Bowdoin’s medal winning streak in this event to 4 years, including the gold in 2009, silver in 2010, and bronze in 2011.  Ciocca and Kinnear have been in the medal crews  for the last 3 years!

Both the Novice Men and Varsity Men advanced to the semis showing the depth of the team in national level competition.  Coxswain Bridgett McCoy ’15 had the reins for stroke Jack Wostrel ’15, Brock Cassidy ’15, Nathan Post ’15 and Bryce Ervin ’15.  This crew surprised the field, but not themselves,  with its second place finish in the qualifier; they raced with the same confidence and determination that characterizes each of our top boats, and carried those qualities to the semi as well, even though they did not advance.

The Varsity Men get the prize for the highest drama of all our entries. As the saying goes,  “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” After winning the gold at New Englands, coxswain Christine Buckland ’12, Dan Polasky ’12, Tucker Colvin ’13, Cal Brooks ’15 and Mark Endrizzi ’15  came to Philadelphia with high hopes for  contesting a medal.  But in the Friday qualifier, they hit a submerged log at 500 meters which sheared off the skeg and rudder, and forced them out of the race.  Fortunately, Cal’s mother, Beth Goodman, is also a lawyer, and her maternal and legal drive quickly called up the USRA Rules of Rowing where she found grounds to appeal the result.  The appeal was succesful and the crew was placed in a semi for Sat. out in Lane 0 next to the wall. Thanks to our friends at Amherst and Gerry Quinlan at St. Joe’s we got the parts needed for John Tytus of Pocock to repair the skeg and rudder.   In the semi the crew staged an all out assault, but from that outside lane couldn’t quite catch the leaders to advance to the finals.

The Head Referee complimented these men by saying that in his years on the river he had never seen such a good result from that lane.  And Anne-Marie Barron, Christine’s mom, wrote the crew a note worthy of gold in itself. A bit of it reads,

“…if the playing field had been level…you would have had incredible results at Dad Vail- your entire season is evidence of that.  Yet in spite of profound disappointment…your grace, dignity, integrity, and courage stand as indicators of the champions you truly are…”

The Novice Women tasted some disappointment as well.  Coxie Alex Lynds ’15, stroke Anna Westervelet ’14, Catherine Yochum ’15, Emily Weinberger ’15, and Mary Bryan Barksdale ’15 were racing as a new line up and rowed their hearts out, but were just not quite fast enough to advance.  Their intensity and desire bode well for seasons to come.

And finally, kudos to our two scullers in the exhibition singles.  Neither Elliott Munn ’12 nor Samantha Burns ’13 advanced from the qualifiers, but both finished with big grins after racing hard on the Schuylkill.  These two embodied what it means to be a part of Bowdoin Navy, and as we close the books on the 25th Anniversary of The Restoration of Rowing at Bowdoin, their effort is captured by another part of Anne-Marie’s note:

“…commitment to one another and common values and shared goals, taking the work seriously but not the self too seriously, always being ready to offer and receive support and compassion during times of challenge, and laughing often- are among the secrets of true success.”

The Dad Vail this year was truly icing on the cake of a great season, full of great results and lessons learned.

At the close of its 25th Anniversary Season, The Bowdoin Navy found some racing alchemy that turned the silver commemoration into Gold! On May 5th at the New England Rowing Championships on historic Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, MA, Bowdoin advanced all 6 of its entries to the Grand Finals and once there, took 4 gold medals.

The Novice Men’s Four, with cox Bridgett McCoy ’15, stroke Jack Wostrel ’15, Chris Breen ’15, Nathan Post ’15 and Bryce Ervin ’15 rowed its fastest time of the season in finishing 6th in the Grand.  The Novice Women’s Four beat its 8th place seed by finishing 5th under the helm of Ashley Talbot ’15, and with stroke Julia O’Keefe ’15, Catherine Yochum ’15, Amanda Maisel ’15 and Helen Mohney ’15.

All four of the upper boats moved through the morning heats with confidence and poise, and in the afternoon finals showed determination and patience with big moves in the final stages of the 2000 meter course to claim the gold.

The medal run started with the W2V4 moving through the course ahead of the field in a three way race with Holy Cross and Trinity.  Over the last 300 meters coxswain Alex Lynds ’15 moved her crew of stroke Anna Westervelt ’14, Emily Weinberger ’15, Sam Burns ’13, and Mary Bryan Barksdale ’15 into position for a closing sprint which earned the win in the closest finish of the day, taking the gold with a 2.3 second gap over Holy Cross with Trinity back by 7 seconds in 3rd.

The M2V4 staged a similar finish with a decisive move over the last 200 meters to best rivals Vermont and Amherst by 3 and 4 seconds respectively. Stroke Elliott Munn ’12, Scott Mitchell ’15, Tom Marcello ’12, and Capt. Morgan Andersen ’12 took the calls from coxswain Jen Helble ’14. For the 3 seniors it was an especially satisfying finish to their season and collegiate careers.

The WV4 gave a characteristically dominant performance leading Connecticut College and Amherst over the  course and pulling away in the last 500 meters to beat the Camels by 7.6 and the Jeffs by 8.8 seconds.  Bonnie Cao coxed for Capt. and stroke Caroline Ciocca ’12, Heather Kinnear ’12, Courtney Payne ’15, and Katie Ross ’14.  This win extended a 3 year streak of silver medals at NE’s with a 4th year in the Gold!

The last race of the sweep was the MV4.  At the starting line, the gold could have gone to any of the three top seeded crews.  Christine Buckland ’12 had the helm and the calls for stroke Dan Polasky ’12, Tucker Colvin ’13, Cal Brooks ’15, and Mark Endrizzi ’15.  Behind at the start, the crew moved patiently through the fleet to set up the finish.  At 1500 meters Bowdoin put on a perfectly executed drive to the line to beat Wentworth by 3.2 and Vermont by 8.9 seconds.

What better way to finish off the  Celebration of The 25th Anniversary of the Restoration of Rowing at Bowdoin! From the modest beginnings of modern rowing in 1986, The Bowdoin Navy has become a dominant force in small boat rowing in New England. In 2012 the hard working athletes of the Bowdoin Crew found the secret of turning silver into gold!

Click here for results!

With its strongest spring start in years, the Bowdoin Navy is anticipating an equally strong finish as we head into the championship phase of the spring.

On Sunday 4/22 the Varsity Men and Women both won their events at the President’s Cup with Colby and Bates before racing was suspended due to high winds and waves on the Androscoggin.  The day before at the Riverhawk Racing Series at UMASS, these 2 crews finished within a second of their rivals  at UVM.  Both Men’s and Women’s Second Varsity crews won their events.

At The Big Three on 4/14 Amherst hosted Bowdoin and Middlebury and the Polar Bears came away with wins in the Men’s and Women’s Varsity Fours, and the Men’s 2V4. The W2V took 2nd, and the Novice Men and Women were 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The Big Three was especially fun as we dedicated the newest hull in the fleet and captured the inaugural Cup for the M2V.  Pete and Mara Taft provided a new Pocock named Trigger to honor their longstanding canine companion, who attended and delighted the team for almost every Bowdoin race for the 4 years that Molly ’11 rowed in the Navy.  And Hunt Dowse ’69 was with us to present the Cup named in his honor for his tremendous support of rowing at Bowdoin.

With the New England Rowing Championships coming up on May 5, The Navy is excited about the prospects of fast racing in strong fields across the regatta.

We travel to Worcester 4/28 to test the waters with Amherst and Conn for one last shot at Quinsigamond before the NERC.

Bowdoin’s top men’s and women’s crews raced to top ten finishes in the College Fours to cap a great fall season.  The Navy had 4 college crews and an alumni boat, and earned 3 guaranteed entries for next year’s regatta.

The First Men zoomed to a 4th place finish and the First Women were 7th for our first 2 guarantees.

The men’s race was extremely close with Bowdoin finishing only 3.4 seconds behind second place Fordham,  1.5 seconds behind Trinity in third, and .5 ahead of Wesleyan, who was just .5 ahead of Cal-Davis! The University of Va. won the event easily. Starting at 26th, Bowdoin passed 4 crews over the course of the race.

The women started 10th and passed Carnegie Mellon and Clemson to finish just 1.5 seconds behind Wheaton (OH) and 3 seconds ahead of Rochester.  Washington University bested the field with Hamilton and Middlebury in 2nd and 3rd. The only “B” entry in the event, our Second Women claimed 28th while beating 5 “A” boats to the finish.

Our Second Men raced in the Club Four and finished 35th  out of 52, with our alums, the Polar Rowing Club, turning in an 18th place finish and a guarantee for next year.

Andrew Gallagher and Dave Thomas joined former coach Eliot Pitney and current coach Doug Welling, with Ben Needham at the helm in the Polar boat.  Hannah Welling, Doug’s wife and former coach at Bowdoin,  rowed in the Yarmouth Rowing Club’s master’s four, with Kate Emerson coxing. Tom Scifres coached the Iona men’s four to an 11th in the College Four. Other Bowdoin alums racing included Tyler Lange, whose Marin master’s eight finished 3rd, and Jess Bernier, in the Hudson River RA master’s eight which was 8th.

Medals from Head of the Charles

Bowdoin MV4+ with medals

The Bowdoin Navy again earned medals in each event it entered at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta in Worcester, MA on Oct. 15. Racing in the fours,  the men finished 1st and 7th in a 20 boat field, and the women took the gold with a 44 second margin over 2nd place Simmons. Three scullers competed in the Open 1x with Bowdoin’s Scott Mitchell claiming the silver.  Our Novice Men finished 17th overall and 2nd among the novice entries and the Novice Women were 6th and 7th, and first among novice crews!

The men squeeked out a 4 second victory over  Vermont,  so racing next weekend will have the added drama of this close rivalry.  Our Second Men beat all other B entries and A boats from Bates and Tufts in finishing 7th.  The women pounded up the course with aggressive catches to take advantage of the tailwind as they zoomed to an impressive victory.  After a big medal haul at the Textile earlier in the month, this was an especially satisfying day of racing in challenging conditions.  Heading into the Charles next weekend, the navy is eager and ready to mix it up with a national field.

The Bowdoin Navy opened the fall racing season with an impressive showing at the Textile River Regatta on Oct. 2.  We had nine crews and a sculler entered in six events and took medals in five of them!  James Henry ’13 opened the run with a win in the Men’s Rec single, a boat he had only rowed for a couple of weeks. The Novice Women finished 2nd and 5th; the Varsity Men were 2nd and 11th; the Varsity Women took 3rd and 4th, and the Men’s Club 2x got a 3rd!  The Novice Men were 4th and 7th, just out of the bling.

1st Men win Silver!

The regatta came a week after a wonderful gathering of over 100 alumni, parents and rowers celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Restoration of Rowing at Bowdoin. Rowing was the first intercollegiate sport at Bowdoin, going back to 1858, and was active and successful into the 1890′s. Phin Sprague ’50, Coach Bill Brown, and Bill Harding  introduced rowing again in 1986.  Folks traveled from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, DC and even Switzerland to mark the re-introduction by dedicating a new hull to honor Coach Brown, row over the New Meadows, and feast on the friendships and accomplishments of the last 25 years.

Founder Phin Sprague '50 with early rowers from '89

Bowdoin races next at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta on Oct. 15th, and we have 4 college fours and an alumni men’s four racing at The Head of The Charles on Oct. 21.

Click for results

Thanks to all you who joined us at Lake Quinsigamond for the NERC. It was wonderful to have so many of you join the team, and the throng, at lakeside. Crews have been racing there since the 1870′s and it always amazes me that the lake has such a vibe and creates such drama, in these intense competitions.

We had our own share of drama this year! On the bright side, all our crews made the Grand Finals, and 3 of our 5 crews won medals. On the other side, our first men, seeded first, had a disappointing row to finish fifth. All part of the life of racing boats and we’re learning from our successes as well as our disappointments.

The Novice Women took the gold medal with an open water finish over the field. The drama in this one came from a season ending injury the crew’s stroke, Anna Westervelt, just after camp. Coach Pitney shuffled and reshuffled, and we finally brought in Taylor Cochran who had rowed last year but not at all this spring, and put her in the bow and she rose to the occasion. What a satisfying win for her and the mates, Katie Ross, Sam Burns, Melissa Arliss and coxie Ruiqi Tang in a really dominating row.

The Varsity Women had its share of drama as Captain Molly Taft faced injury as well; with subs and uncertainty they made their way though the last races of the season, and the week before New Englands Coach Pitney put Molly back in the boat and they finished second to Conn by open water at the Clark Invitational. Without much water time before the Championship, the outcome this week remained uncertain, but their race to the silver medal at NERC was inspirational as they closed the gap with Conn to a couple of seconds. Caroline Ciocca stroked and Bonnie Cao coxed with Heather Kinnear and Claire Ellwanger joining Molly to round out the boat.

The M2V was the most exciting and closest race of the day. Without the advantage of a morning heat, stroke Morgan Andersen and coxie Julia MacDonald had only the row to the start to get the crew of John Bruno, James Henry, and Elliott Munn in the groove. In winning the bronze medal they had to stage a dramatic finish to move through Amherst, and they did. At the line, only 2 seconds separated the first 4 crews, with Bowdoin just .6 seconds behind the VT crew that beat them by 5 seconds in Lowell, and only 1.2 behind winner UNH!. Amherst was .8 behind Bowdoin, who beat the Jeffs the week before by only .4! This one was a huge accomplishment.

The Novice Men had a flat heat in the morning, but after a good long break, coxswain Jen Helble took her men to the water and with stroke Dan Lesser’s leadership Graham Edwards, Steve Strout, and Soichi Hirokawa broke through to a higher level of competition to finish 5th in field loaded with speed. Winning is not always finishing first: these men won the race with themselves and finished the season with their best race of the spring.

Coxie Christine Buckland and the Varsity Men, stroke Michael Hannaman, Tucker Colvin, Dan Polasky, and Kenny McCroskery, went into the day seeded first based on beating Amherst by 8 seconds the week before. URI surprised them in the morning heat and beat them by a breath, but the men had the 3rd fastest qualifying time behind VT and URI so they were poised to be contenders in the afternoon. In a thrilling final VT had a couple of seats at the 1500 m. mark and 4 boats were bow to bow to challenge at the end. But by the line, VT and Amherst took gold and silver while UMASS Lowell bested UMASS Amherst by 1.2 seconds for 3rd and 4th with Bowdoin trailing for 5th by 1.1 seconds. It was a huge disappointment, but the men are determined to understand it and learn from it and get back in the speed for Dad Vail in 2 weeks.

So Quinsigamond offered up its historic drama once again, and the Bowdoin Navy had its share, all for the good as we celebrate the accomplishments and learn from the defeats.

Though the 4/16 regatta was canceled due to high winds and unruly water, the Bowdoin Navy had a great day at the President’s Cup with Colby and Bates here in Maine on the 17th. Men’s and Women’s fours retained the Harding and Brown Cups and Bowdoin finished 2nd in team standings behind Bates and ahead of Colby.

At Worcester in the Clark Invitational on a rain drenched 4/23, the 3 men’s varsity crews won their events with the Novice Men in second behind Conn. The VW were 2nd to Conn and the NW won going away.

April 30 we’re back in Worcester for the New England Rowing Championships feeling strong and confident. The racing will tell, but we are rowing for medals all the way around!