United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Women's Crew - Bears Post Strong Performance at Head of Charles

BOSTON, MASS.--(10/21/07)--The US Coast Guard Academy Men’s and Women’s Crews competed against the top DI, DII, DIII and club programs from all over the world at the 43rd Annual Head of the Charles Regatta.

On Saturday, under cloudy skies, two of the CGA’s four entries opened up the weekend of competition. The CGA Second Varsity Men competed in the Club Eight event against a variety of crews ranging from international club programs to DI programs who did not get accepted into the Championship events to other DIII second varsitys, while the Women’s Second Varsity competed in the Collegiate 4+ event that included collegiate programs in the US and Canada regardless of division as long as there are no athletic scholarships offered. In the Men’s event, the Bears posted a great performance that had them finish in 28th place out of the field of 68 crews. The boat included Courtney Elder, Nick Jokela, Chris Verlinden, Tenor Galambush, Phil Constantino, Dan Swaim, Brian Kelly, Sam Merritt, and James Heuser. The winner was Harvard University’s Second Varsity. With this performance, CGA has guaranteed an entry in the Men’s Club Eight event in next year’s regatta.

The Women’s Collegiate 4+ event the Bears, represented by Allison Murray, Cate Gillen, Nikki Dillinger, Alyssa Van Delden and Ashley Stone; worked very hard coming out in the 25th starting position pushing away from the boats behind them and passing the boat ahead and found a strong racing rhythm over the last mile of the course. Racing against a number of programs who boat their top athletes in the fours event, the Bears rowed to an 18th place overall out of 38 entries and missing a guaranteed entry into next year’s regatta by just two places. The winner of the event was Marquette University Rowing Club.

On Sunday, the first varsities took to the water took to the water in perfect weather conditions to compete in the Collegiate Eights event that features all of the top collegiate programs in the US and Canada regardless of division as long as there are no athletic scholarships offered. In the Men’s race, the Bears were represented by Andrew Slater, Tomas Mameniskis, Kris Kesting, Tom Olsen, Matt Vanderslice, Tomas Naujokaitis, Nick Iannarone, Andrew Haley and Roy Cromer; established a solid rhythm out of the starting chute and maintained it down the course. Although some of the turns were challenging, the Bears posted a 19th place finish out of 42 entries in the event guaranteeing an entry into next year’s Men’s Collegiate Eight event. The winner of the event was Trinity College.

In the Women’s Collegiate Event, that features all of the top collegiate programs in the US and Canada regardless of division as long as there are no athletic scholarships offered, the CGA Bears, represented by Jess Vogel, Adriana Knies, Lauren Milici, Emily Holt, Shannon McElroy, Sarah Southard, Maggie Ward, Sarah Thompson, and Rory Keegan; built on their performance at the Housatonic and established a strong pace early on to stay ahead of the NCAA DIII bronze medalists, Bates College. While the pace quickened throughout the race, the Bears were not able to hold off the Bates move going into Cambridge and found themselves on the outside of the half mile turn and were unable to hold the speed they were hoping for but nevertheless finished strongly and posted a 12th place out of 44 entries; 7th out of all DIII entries, while also earning a guaranteed entry into next year’s Women’s Collegiate Eight event. The winner of the event was Trinity College. The CGA Women’s team will look to build on this end-of-fall performance as they go into the winter training months to prepare for yet another campaign to represent the Academy at the NCAA’s on May.

For complete results, please go to http://www.hocr.org/results/results.asp.