Photo: HOCR
The most prestigious event in the sport of Fall rowing, the Championship Eight at the Head of the Charles will bring together national teams, elite club crews and top collegiate eights from across the United States, Canada and Europe.
And while obviously, the speed of the rowers remains exceptionally important for the success of the crew, the twisty nature of the course is the ultimate test for a coxswain who could make or break the outcomes for their crew.
USRowing
After setting the course record here twelve months ago, the US National Team are back to defend their title. The listed crew is the same that has been racing this summer at the World Championships, as well as the SH Netz Cup in Germany. On an international stage the results they have achieved have been rather underwhelming: missing out on Olympic qualification at the World Championships, despite some unusually large trash-talking will have been disappointing, plus their loss at the SH Netz Cup to a British Development crew over the long distance was less than expected. The crew does have a lot of experience over this course, for example coxswain Jimmy Catalano returns from steering last year’s winning crew has steered the Head of the Charles five times between the National Team, the University of Wisconsin and Greenwich Crew. Seven-seat Clark Dean will be making his eighth run down the course having rowed in every running of the event since 2015.
Syracuse University
Of the collegiate crews, it will be the Syracuse Orange Leading out the field. Their placing as the best academic crew twelve months ago was far better expected which led to possibly the best season in living memory for the Upstate New York Program. They won their first medal at the Eastern Sprints in 45 years before placing 5th at the IRA National Championships and making it to finals day in the Temple Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. They have returned four of the rowers from their Varsity Eight at the IRA Championships including Joe Willis, who won an U23 World Championship for Great Britain this summer. Setting off with bow number one is a high standard to set off with but the Orange will be hoping to win their first ever headship of the Charles.
Yale University
It’s the start of new era for the men’s team at Yale University. After thirteen years with the Bulldogs, where he added three National titles to his record-equalling total of fourteen, Steve Gladstone has retired. This Head of the Charles will be the first major event for Mike Gennaro after being promoted to Head Coach, still benefitting from Coach Gladstone’s recruiting as he returns a squad that includes several high performers at U23 World Championships level. It is not all plain sailing as they finished last season on somewhat lower note as they were overturned by both Princeton and Washington at the National Championship despite having beaten both earlier in the season. Moreover, there has been a lot of talent leave New Haven this summer, including Miles Beeson a three-time World Champion at the U23 level, Fergus Hamilton a Senior International with the Australian team, and Dan Williamson an Olympic Champion. Those who remain are by no means short on pedigree, but they may be more concerned about avoiding slipping down the pecking order than expecting to come away with the winner’s medals.
Harvard University
There is a downward trend in Cambridge. The Harvard men are coming off the worst two-year stretch since the 1960s and show few immediate signs of changing their trajectory. Squeezed out of the Grand Final at the IRA Championship by neighbours Northeastern, they finished in a nineth overall position on Lake Mercer. A week later they would lose a record-equalling sixth consecutive Harvard-Yale race. This year will also be their first without their phenomenally talented 2018 recruiting class with Douwe de Graaf and Calvin Tarczy from the all-conquering St Pauls Eight as well as golden boy Clark Dean leaving with nine years of first eight experience between them. But the Head of the Charles probably gave them their best result of the year as they placed third among collegiate crews and fourth overall and with home-water advantage, Charley Butt will be hoping that they will be able to start the new season off on a good note and start to turn the ship at Newell Boathouse.
Leander Club
After a successful first trip to Boston for Leander Club last year, the men from the Pink Palace will return to North America’s most prestigious race. This men’s squad is one of the major beneficiaries of Caversham overflowing with talent within the men’s sweep squad as many high-quality athletes will be available for selection by Men’s Chief Coach Matt Beechey. They will also be boosted by the talented athletes coming back from the United States including many of those mentioned above. Such boost may have been previewed in September when this Leander squad provided half of the British Eight including Beeson and de Graaf that won against the US and German national teams in the SH Netz Cup in Germany. A start deep in the field may have contributed to only finishing fifth twelve months ago, but they have still made a good foundation to launch their assault on the headship this year, trying to replicate the success that their women achieved last year.
Princeton University
The crew from Princeton University is one of the most interesting in all of collegiate rowing this year. In the regular season, they won all but one race, being within a second of then #2 Yale. Another narrow loss to the Bulldogs would follow at Eastern Sprints but Princeton would collect their first medal at the Regatta since 2017. But by the IRA Championship they were able to row through Yale to finish as the fastest crew from east of the Mississippi and third overall, collecting their first medal in that event since 2016. What makes them so particularly exciting is how young the crew is. All but two of the first eight from IRAs are back in New Jersey this year including the five-six combination. Educated just a mile apart, Marcus Chute and Theo Bell managed to establish themselves in the powerhouse of the crew within their first season guaranteeing Greg Hughes consistency for three more years to build as fast a crew as possible. Given this continuity from last season, the Tigers will be looking to make a splash in Boston, with no limits on their ambition both this weekend and for the seasons to come as Princeton aim to win their first national title in 25 years.
University of Washington
Twelve months ago, the University of Washington gave an underwhelming defence of their Headship from the previous year. With the number one affixed to the bow, they could only manage to finish in seventh, almost ten seconds behind Syracuse and more than nineteen behind the US Rowing entry. This shocked much of the rowing world as the Huskies were ranked only number six going into the Spring racing season. Despite this they were constantly improving, finishing the season in an impressive second place at the National Championship. There is a great deal of hunger in Seattle, and they will not be satisfied by this result and will be looking to stop the reign of rivals California. It has been eight years since the end of the five-in-a-row streak and with only 2021’s victory over a severely reduced field since then, Michael Callahan will be hoping that a strong performance at the Head of the Charles will allow them to set a base to be the best in the country this year.
University of British Columbia
The other collegiate crew making the trip from the West Coast is the University of British Columbia. The powerhouse of Canadian Rowing has won the Men’s Eight at the Canadian University Rowing Championships every year since 2017. In their only races so far in 2023, they defeated the University of Victoria in the Brown Cup at the start of April as well as four second win over them at the Western Canadian University Rowing Championships. The Canadian Rowing season is focused far more in the Autumn than in other countries so the Thunderbirds will be much closer to their peak than international competition, but since a similar set of results last year ended in only a fourteenth-placed finish. It may be too much for them to aim for much more than a top-ten finish.
Predictions
Picking a winner of this one is a challenging proposition. Some athletes will be coming down from the peaks of the international season, while others will be building up for the season to come. Even then I would expect the class of the USRowing and Leander Club crews to be ahead the rest. And while the Leander crew contains much of the GB Development crew that beat this line-up at the SH Netz Cup, the element of experience on the Charles, which highly values the skill of a coxswain, will probably be enough for the American squad to win out. As for the collegiate crews, the young talent of Princeton looks the most promising.
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