The Head of the Charles Regatta ended up being a tale of two days for the women’s rowing team.
On Saturday in the Club Fours race, the Owls had a strong showing as their two boats finished 11th and 15th out of 45 teams, with times of 19:39.263 and 19:49.106 respectively.
Sunday was a different story, as the Owls finished dead last in a field of 39 teams, with a time of 20:19.746. This was due largely to a Non-Yield Interference violation that added a minute onto the Owls’ final time.
Despite the poor Sunday, coach Rebecca Grzybowski was positive with her team’s performance during the weekend.
“I was really proud of how we represented Temple, and our team,” Grzybowski said. “I think they did a great job against some really, really fast crews.”
When asked about the violation in the Championship Eights race, Grzybowski said she wasn’t sure of when the violation occurred.
“To be honest, I don’t even know what happened with that, in terms of where and when,” Grzybowski said. “Because the race is three miles [long], I didn’t get to see all of it, and there are referees stationed along the way, so somewhere along the course someone thought we didn’t yield a turn or something like that. There was a lot of action on the course, so I really don’t know.”
However, there were some positives to pull from the weekend. One is that the Owls were able to send three boats up to Boston (two more than last year) to compete in the world’s largest two day regatta. Another is how aggressive the women were when it came to racing in the huge event.
“The best thing I saw, especially in the championship today, was that they were really aggressive,” Grzybowski said. “Like I said, we were up against some really fast teams, but we raced the whole thing and stayed very internal. We definitely have some things to work on, find some extra power in the winter, through some fitness. But I think we’re in a really good spot heading into the last fall race next weekend and then into the winter.”
The Owls will conclude their fall season back home on the Schuylkill River in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on October 26.
Steve Bohnel can be reached at sbohnel@gmail.com or on Twitter @SteveSportsGuy1.
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