Virginia to Compete in Head of the Charles Sunday

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Oct. 19, 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—The Virginia rowing program opens its fall season at the world’s largest regatta, the Head of the Charles, in Boston on Sunday. It will be the first competition for the Cavaliers since they won the 2012 NCAA Championship in May.

This year, the Head of the Charles will feature over 9,000 competitors. The two-day event is attended by 300,000 spectators yearly.

UVa will send three boats to Boston, including two in the Championship Eights race, in which Virginia won a year ago. The Cavaliers will also have an entrant in the Championship Fours, where they were the top collegiate finisher in 2011 (second overall).

The HOTC course is 5,000 meters along the Charles River, which features seven bridges, multiple turns and passing in a head race format. In head races each crew starts single file about 10-15 seconds apart, and the results are based on time. All three of the Cavaliers’ regattas this fall are in this format, which differs from the spring season, where boats line up side-by-side and race down a straight 2,000-meter course.

On Saturday, nine Cavalier alums will comprise a boat and compete in the Alumnae Eights, including Keziah Beall, who was in the stroke seat for the 2012 national champion Varsity Eight, and Christine Roper, who won gold with the Canadian women’s four at the 2012 World Under-23 Championships. First-year UVa assistant coach Brett Sickler will compete in the stroke seat of Michigan’s alumnae boat.

The Cavaliers return to action Oct. 28 for the Princeton Chase in Princeton, N.J.