CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Two women's entries from the University of Washington turned in strong performances in high-level races on the first day of the 53rd annual Head of the Charles Regatta Saturday.
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UW junior
Anna Thornton (Nottingham, England) finished fourth in the championship women's single sculls, competing against numerous Olympians and many of the top single scullers in the world.
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A little earlier, racing against an elite field that featured a number of rowers who participated in the 2017 World Rowing Championships last month in Sarasota, Fla., the UW boat of
Katy Gillingham (Seattle) and
Kenzie Waltar (Kirkland, Wash.) finished in sixth place in the women's championship double sculls, with a time of 19:18.231.
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Also Saturday, a UW alumni crew finished third in a 50-boat field in the alumni men's eight race.
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Thornton, who won a gold medal in the British quad sculls at the 2017 Under-23 World Championships, held her own with some of the greats in her event.
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American Gevvie Stone set a Head of the Charles Regatta single sculls record with her eighth career victory, her fourth in a row. Stone, rowing for Cambridge University, was the silver medalist in the women's single sculls at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Saturday, she won with a time of 18:44.310. Another U.S. Olympian, Felice Mueller, finished second; and veteran Dutch sculler, Lisa Scheenaard (fifth place at 2017 Worlds) finished third.
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Thornton took fourth with a time of 19:16.603, just ahead of another U.S. Olympian, Kara Kohler, as well as American Mary Jones, who won the bronze in the lightweight single sculls in Sarasota. The field of 23 entrants also included other former U.S. Olympians like Meghan O'Leary and Ellen Tomek as well.
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An experienced pair of American women won the championship double sculls as Maureen McAuliffe and Lily Keane posted a time of 18:13.242. McAuliffe, rowing for the U.S., finished fifth last month at the World Championships in the quad sculls. The second-place boat featured a 2017 World Champion single sculler (Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland) and her Canadian partner, Carling Zeeman, who finished sixth in that same event at the Worlds. The third-place finishers both rowed in the Canada lightweight quad sculls that finished fourth in Sarasota.
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Gillingham and Waltar (19:18.231) were the top-finishing collegiate double, as the UW duo finished just ahead of a crew from UMass in the 18-boat field.
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Earlier in the day, a UW men's alumni eight finished third out of 50 entrants in that event. The Huskies, with Stuart Sim, last year's varsity eight coxswain in charge, rowed the fastest opening split to the River Street Bridge and to the Weld Boathouse just past halfway, but the Huskies' pace was overtaken by alumni crews from Princeton (Fat Cats) and Cornell (BMA) in the latter portion of the three-mile course.
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Both the Fat Cats and the UW boat were assessed a five-second penalty for missing a buoy, which gave the win the Cornell crew, with a time of 14:42.019. The Princeton boat dropped to second (14:45.926), but the UW's place was unaffected (final, adjusted time: 14:48.113).
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Tomorrow, the racing continues from Boston. The UW has entries in each of the championship eights events. Here's the schedule:
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Sunday, October 22:
1:48 p.m. ET – Men's Championship Eights (26 entries)
2:22 p.m. ET – Women's Championship Eights (36 entries)
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Via the regatta's official website, you can watch
live stream at RowingChannel.com. Live results are also available via HereNow.com.
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On Sunday, Washington Rowing will host a complimentary Husky Hospitality Tent just upstream from the Eliot Bridge Enclosure on the Boston side of the river. The tent will be marked by the white blades of Washington and a UW flag. It is not part of the Reunion Village.
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The Head of the Charles Regatta is free and open to the public. In addition to exhilarating rowing action on the challenging three-mile course, the Regatta offers a number of family-friendly activities for all ages. Make sure to check out the HOCR.org website for lots more information.
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The following weekend, the defending NCAA champion women's team heads to Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif., for the Head of the American (Fri.-Sat., Oct. 27-28) while the men's team will next compete in the UW's annual Head of the Lake, Nov. 5 in Seattle.
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For more on Washington Rowing, follow the Huskies onÂ
Facebook,Â
Instagram (@washingtonrowing) andÂ
Twitter (
@UW_Rowing).
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UW Alumni 8+ lineup:
Cox: Stuart Sim '16
Stroke: Ante Kusurin '07
7: Brett Newlin '05
6: Conlin McCabe '11
5: Colin Phillips '06
4: Scott Gault '05
3: Jp Marquart '08
2: Alexander Perkins '15
Bow: Ezra Carlson '16
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