Michigan
Head of the Charles
Michigan Matches Best-Ever Finish at Head of the Charles
10/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
Oct. 23, 2011
Site: Cambridge, Mass. (Charles River)
Event: Head of the Charles
First Varsity Eight Finish: 3rd Place of 37 Teams (16:22.007)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Nov. 4 -- host Belleville Classic (Belleville Lake)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The University of Michigan women's rowing team posted a third-place finish in the Women's Championship Eights race this afternoon (Sunday, Oct. 23) at the Head of the Charles, one of the largest annual regattas held in North America. The finish matched the best ever put forth by a Michigan crew at the event.
"Obviously, we're really pleased to finish third today among a very strong field of competition." said head coach Mark Rothstein. "And not to take anything away from the performance, but on the other side of that, you look at a third-place finish and think if we were just a little bit faster maybe we could have finished first. All in all I think we raced really hard, and that was the biggest thing we were looking for today."
The Wolverines earned the medal, clocking in with a time of 16:22.007 and finishing 10.49 seconds behind the winners from the University of Virginia. There were 37 boats in the Women's Championship Eights race, from institutions across the country and several foreign crews.
"The one thing you have to be careful of is putting too much stock into a good finish at this race," Rothstein added. "A lot of teams do different things here than they might during the season, but it's a good start for us and I think it bodes well for the spring season."
Michigan's eight included Bryna Oleshansky (Knoxville, Tenn./Bearden), Melisa Ongun (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park), Chrissy Holm (North Oaks, Minn./Hill-Murray), Jessica Eiffert (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima), Emily Eiffert (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima), Lindsey Healy (Troy, Mich./Madison Heights Bishop Foley), Julia Darnton (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) and Felice Mueller (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Pomfret School [Conn.]). Colleen Macke (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) served as the U-M coxswain.
"Coxswains have a big impact in a race like this, and I thought Colleen did a great job for us," said Rothstein. "We have a lot of very talented coxswains and it was a really difficult decision on who would even go for us today, but I thought she steered a really nice course for us."
Michigan returns to action next Sunday (Oct. 30) in a novice-only race at Michigan State. The full squad will take part in the Belleville Classic on Friday, Nov. 4, in Belleville, Mich.
RESULTS
Women's Championship Eights (Top 10)
1. Virginia 16:11.519 2. Radcliffe 16:19.634 3. Michigan 16:22.007 4. Yale 16:24.041 5. Wisconsin 16:28.311 6. Princeton 16:31.248 7. Cornell 16:39.797 8. Stanford 16:44.675 9. Virginia 16:45.64810. AUSR Orca 16:46.350
Contact: Rob Tillotson (734) 763-4423
