Women’s Rowing Takes Gold at Head of the Charles

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Fordham women’s rowing team made history at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass., on Oct. 19 and 20, as the Club Four took home Fordham’s first ever gold medal at the race.

“I was absolutely thrilled with the result,” Fordham head coach Ted Bonanno said. “We were so excited.  I’ve been going to this regatta since it started 40 or more years ago.”

Beating out Clemson and Boston University, who won second and third place respectively, the Club Four finished the course 3.38 seconds faster than Clemson and well ahead of their 45 other competitors.  Not only did the rowers take first place in the race, but they also finished just 4.39 seconds off the course record.

“The interesting thing about the splits, the landmark timing, is we were winning but it was very close,” Bonanno said. “We were winning by a fraction of a second the first split, the second split, the third split…but then in that last portion we stretched it out to a 3 second lead. And that’s what we won by.”

Bonanno attributes this great race not only to the veteran rowers, but to the freshman coxswain, Jackie Ramos.

“Our coxswain, and she’s only a freshmen, she did an absolute superb job,” Bonanno said.  “She coxswained all through high school and we recruited her for Fordham and she coxswained a very good West Coast club.  She’s from Long Beach, California. She coxswained, I believe, their top women’s high school boat at the Head of the Charles last year and I think the year before.  So it’s a huge plus to know the course… That’s one of the reasons why we did win — because we had a very good coxswain.”

Having a good coxswain, Bonanno says, is especially important at the Head of the Charles because of the difficult nature of the course.

“On this particular race course, steering is huge because there are so many turns,” he said. “[You’re] going down the river and all of the sudden it makes a big sweeping turn to the left. Well, if you take that turn a little wide, that can cost you multiple seconds.  And when you’re winning by a fraction of one second, if you take that turn a little wide, or there’s a boat in your way, it can cost you several seconds.”

The women’s Lightweight also rowed its way to a very successful weekend, improving upon last year’s eight-place finish by placing fifth overall this year.  Competing against many other collegiate and international club teams, the Lightweight Four boat placed third among United States Collegiate teams.

The Head of the Charles is one of Fordham’s biggest races for the fall season, making the success even sweeter.  Drawing in over 9,000 athletes and 300,000 spectators, the Head of the Charles is known as the world’s largest regatta. It is open not only to international collegiate rowers, but also to boat club teams all over the world. Each year, Fordham enters some of their boats into events, hoping to perform well enough to earn a guaranteed place in next year’s Head of the Charles.  In both the Club Four and Lightweight Four races, Fordham’s past performances granted their entrance into their respective races this year.

According to one of the team’s co-captains, Jenn Amoroso, this fall has been quite a turnaround year.

“This team is the best team we’ve had so far, not just physically, but mentally,” she said.

She explained that each team member has taken on a better attitude, creating a positive atmosphere for everyone involved.  She continued to say that each team member’s desire to do more and perform at their best has encouraged everyone else to do the same.  This regatta has been especially good for the whole team because it set high goals and provided a positive foundation for the rest of the year.  Amoroso said that the success at the Head of the Charles was extremely important for the team as a whole because they do not race in as many big regattas during the fall as they do in the spring.  She hopes that the excitement from their recent success will help carry the team to a successful spring season as well.