Harvard-Radcliffe Heavyweights Complete 61st Head Of The Charles Regatta

After facing brutal winds and freezing temperatures on Saturday and racing in sunshine on Sunday, the Harvard-Radcliffe heavyweight crew team battled teams from near and far on its home course. Despite gold medals coming home to Weld Boathouse with the Harvard-Radcliffe lightweights, the Harvard-Radcliffe heavyweights came up short.

The Black and White entered three boats into the legendary three-day competition. On Saturday, battling a stubborn headwind and bitter temperatures, Harvard-Radcliffe’s Women’s Club 8+ ripped down the course to a fifth-place finish. Stroked by captain Erin Hanrahan and with freshman coxswain Aleksandra Belov in the driver’s seat, the 8+ fell to archrival Yale, which won with a time of 16:50.654. On the Bulldogs’ tail were boats from Northeastern, Princeton, and Georgetown, respectively, who eked out top finishes.

On Sunday, with sunny skies and smoother sailing waters, thousands lined Charles’ lively shores and beloved bridges. Although the team spirit was unmatched at the Black and White’s Weld Boathouse, Harvard-Radcliffe once again struggled to reach the podium, this time in the Women’s Championship 8+ event.

Harvard-Radcliffe’s “A” boat was seeded eighth but finished 16th. Functioning as the Black and White’s V8+, the boat was stroked by junior Claudia Chadwick and coxed by sophomore Isabelle Goldstein. Former Great Britain Under-19 national team member Sophie Haisman sat in the four seat. The sophomore is a two-time medalist at the U19 World Rowing Championships.

With freshman Sadie Zweig in stroke and sophomore Nikhita Mandapaka in the coxswain seat, Harvard-Radcliffe’s “B” 8+ placed 22nd. This 2V8+ was powered down the course in part by a powerhouse pair from the Swedish national team. The five-seat junior Jacqueline Stjernfeldt and the four-seat sophomore Viktoria Ekstrand are pair partners not only on the Charles, but also as the Under-23 Women’s 2- for Sweden’s national team. This summer, the duo raced at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Duisburg, Germany.

Despite a challenging weekend at the Head of the Charles, the team’s talented rowers look forward to continuing to grow and finding their fire as they race towards success in the spring season.

On Nov. 7, the Black and White will return to racing on the Charles to compete in the annual Foot of the Charles, a beloved Charles River tradition. In the meantime, the team can be found pounding meters up and down the river, getting in as much water time as possible before the New England winter settles in.

—Staff writer Micah A. John can be reached at [email protected].