Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 October 19, 2001 f

Crew poised to compete with best in the world
ELIZABETH GOTT
STAFF WRITER

There are very few college sports that allow athletes to compete alongside the U.S. National Team. Fewer bring teams from as far as Australia and Denmark together to compete. Thus, the Head of the Charles Regatta is a unique sporting event.

The XXXVII Head of the Charles will be held this weekend in Boston. The HOC is the largest regatta in the world, and is also said to be the biggest global two-day spectator event.

Coach Gil Birney is excited for his rowers to experience this festive spectator event. "We're going to go down there and have a lot of fun," he said.

The Bowdoin Crew has entered five boats in the regatta-an unprecedented number for a small college in Maine. The team heads down to Boston early today for some practice and preparation before racing on Saturday and Sunday.

Senior Will LoVerme will be making his third trip to the Charles, but this year marks the first time that he will row in the Championship Division-an elite racing category reserved for some of the world's best. LoVerme's boat finished second among seventy-six boats in 1999-first among all colleges in the world-in the club division.

Last year, the varsity men finished a strong twelfth place, despite rowing without their top two rowers, who were disqualified because of previous competition in Championship regattas.

This year's first varsity men's boat will rely on its maturity and experience to handle a tough race course and a strong field of competition. In that boat are LoVerme, Tom Scifres '03 (who helped the men last year's twelfth-place finish), captain Brendan Hughes '02, and Tom Ricciardi '04. Coxswain Betsy Gott '04 will lead Bowdoin's men as they go head to head with the U.S. National Team, Princeton University, The Danske Studenters Roklub of Denmark, and Boston's own MIT Boat Club, among other worldwide competitors.

Bowdoin is sending a rather large group of sophomore rowers to Boston this year. The women's varsity four will also compete in the Championship Division on Sunday afternoon, with four sophomores rounding out senior captain Lindsay Sortor's rowing experience. Juleah Swanson '04 will cox the women against international teams and U.S. college powerhouses like the U.S. National Team, the Danish Rowing Federation, Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft, and the Thames Rowing Club.

The HOC makes coxswains very nervous. "This race is a coxswain's dream…or your biggest nightmare, depending on where you're at," Birney said. Its six bridges and tight turns require acute awareness of other crews and specific attention to the shortest line possible.

A course steered flawlessly can save a crew a considerable amount of time. The turn at Weeks Footbridge, a huge gathering for spectators, is especially tough: all coxswains will aim for the narrow center arch, and the adrenaline of racing often causes collisions and oar fights among crews. On the Charles River, crew becomes a contact sport.

Swanson has some experience on the Charles River that will prove valuable to her boat this year. Last fall, she coxed an Irish boat that had come overseas without a coxswain.

"It's difficult," she said. "What makes it hard is all the bridges and bad coxswains…Weeks Footbridge is tricky, because if you mess up, it results in some sort of disaster."

Bowdoin's other three boats will compete Saturday in the Club Division of the regatta. The second and third varsity men's boats, stroked by first-year Andy Fisher and Justin Clarke '04, are excited about their chances against the University of Kansas, Vassar College, and Rice University.

Anjali Dotson's second varsity women will also be rowing in the Club Division, where they will battle it out against schools like NYU, Northwestern University, and UVM.

The men's club race heads off the start line at 1:00p.m. on Saturday, and the women's club competition immediately follows. Similarly, the men's championship division is set to begin at 3:00p.m. on Sunday, with the women's race to follow.