Bowdoin Rowing

Remigio Delectate et Remigate Velociter

alumni

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Through The Snake; On To The Charles!

We had a great day of racing at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta in Worcester on 10/13.

Both men and women repeated last year’s  gold medal sweep in the fours events; the men beat 2nd place Vt. by :32 and the women zoomed to a :52 win over Amherst in 2nd.  The novice men and women came in first among the novice entries, with the Novice Women stealing the show with a 6th place finish among all crews!  In the eights, the men were 20th and the women 23rd. Complete results are at snake.qra.org.

Now it’s on to the Charles on Oct. 20-21.  We’re racing both men and women in the College Fours on Sat. and the College Eights on Sun.

An alumni boat of men will race in the Club Four on Sat as Polar Rowing.  And our own Molly Taft ‘11 is bow seat in the Riverside crew in the Club Eight, and John and Christine Haines have a spot in the Director’s Challenge Mixed Double, all on Sat.

The trailer will most likely be parked at the FALS lot, and we hope you’ll swing by to say hello and greet the team.  Sat. night’s alumni gathering will be at Asgard Pub and Restaurant at 350 Mass Ave in Cambridge starting at 7:15.

Based on our results in the fours this fall we should be competing for top spots in those events, so be sure to come out and holler for the Bears!

Let’s Go Black!

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Bowdoin at The Charles

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

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Cleaning Up at the Textile!

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.