Bowdoin Rowing

Remigio Delectate et Remigate Velociter

HOCR

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Opening Days 2013

Our Opening Days bring some 27 new rowers and coxswains to the Navy for our 2 week “try it out” session. With several of our juniors abroad this term, we’re thrilled with the turnout! Jumpy the seal, the big bald eagle and a great picnic at Popham Beach have been pretty enticing for the new group.

The upper boats have been hard at work preparing for racing in Oct. Both our men and women earned guaranteed entries in the college fours at the Charles, the men with a repeat medal performance at 5th place and the women by winning the gold! Those two boats will be joined by men’s and women’s alumni boats in the Club Four.  We are also racing at the Textile and Snake regattas ahead of the Charles.

Inquiries from prospective students have been dramatically up this year and we encourage any of you who may be considering Bowdoin for study and rowing to contact Coach Birney.

Watch for updates here as the fall progresses.

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Guts, Glory, and Gold!

From left to right, Katie Ross ’14, Catherine Yochum, ’15, Bonnie Cao ’13, Mary Bryan Barksdale ’15, Sam Burns ’13

At The Head of The Charles on Oct. 20th 2012, Bowdoin crews made Navy history as both the women and the men earned medals in this classic fall festival of rowing. Racing in the College Fours event, both crews pulled with enormous determination and just plain guts as they attacked the course from beginning to end. When results were posted, the men repeated a medal winning row from 2011, and the women won Bowdoin’s first gold at The Charles. It was glorious.

Starting with bow #4, the men were on track to challenge for the gold themselves. They won the Snake the week before and were the first college crew by over a minute in their silver medal row at the Textile. They took to the Charles rowing really strongly to Cambridge Boat Club but there they snagged a branch on the skeg which caused a brush with Fordham’s stern and forced the Bears to stop briefly and move to the outside of the slower crew. Coxswain Jen Helble ‘14 quickly brought her boat to speed, but the pause cost them valuable time. The University of Virginia repeated as winner, and Bowdoin came 5th with Michigan, Michigan State, and Milwaukee School of Engineering ahead of them. It takes an extraordinary effort to regain racing speed after a stop that late in the race, but these men had a gutsy recovery that earned them a medal for a second consecutive year.

And the women won the Gold for Bowdoin’s first trip to the Awards Ceremony! After winning both the Textile and the Snake earlier in the season, these women were convinced they could take the Charles. Senior coxswain Bonnie Cao called and steered an aggressive race for her ambitious crew. Starting with bow #5, the Bears left #6 Penn State in their wake early while passing Wheaton, U. of Chicago, and Middlebury before rounding through Eliot St. and closing on bow #1 Hamilton. Guts to glory: Bowdoin won by 5 seconds over Grand Valley State with Clemson and Trinity in 3rd and 4th.

Both these men’s and women’s crews set a standard of commitment and determination that carried over to Sunday’s racing. In another milestone for the Navy, Bowdoin entered both men and women in the College Eights on Oct. 21. Racing at the Charles has a way of transforming crews, and both these boats had their best races of the season as they mirrored the spirit and intensity of the fours.

Our alumni men were racing as Polar Rowing in the Club Four on Sat. and were sadly afflicted by The Curse of The Skeg, which seems to have found a home with us! Rowing to the start, they struck something lurking below the surface and sheared off the skeg and rudder, in an uncanny repeat of the 2010 men’s four at the Charles, and the 2012 incident at Dad Vail.  They docked at MIT where a boatman was able to supply a new skeg, but did not have time to replace the rudder, so these guys gamely cast off and rowed the course without steerage beyond what they could provide by pulling. They finished with 4 penalties on the buoys, worth 90 seconds, but still beat one crew!

The Charles offered up its usual surprises, dramas, and this year,  a victory for the Navy. Thanks to all the alums and families and friends who joined the racers for 2 days of historic proportions in the world’s most famous fall regatta. Soon enough it’s into the gym with anticipation of spring’s sprints, but for now, it’s time to enjoy the glories of this fall’s golden season.

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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