Textile River Regatta

Early in the Morning on October 4th, Medford Rowing went to the Textile River regatta

Due to conditions the past weekend, Paper City Regatta was cancelled, so this would be the team's first regatta for the season, so for some this would be their first ever regatta.

The first race of the day was the Men's Youth Second Varsity Four, which raced against twenty other boats from across the Northeast. The lineup was Dexter Mcintyre as Coxswain, Robert Cairns as bow seat, Ollie Bolitho as two seat, Harry Mumma as three seat, and Aziz Djedid as stroke seat. The boys put up a strong race, and got a time of 22:07, which they were not very pleased with.They got last place, but had a solid beginning time to improve off of. 

The second race of the day was the Women's Second Varsity Four. This was a new boat, with two of the four rowers being novices. Both Charlotte Foti and Saoirse Boelter-Dimock were still novice rowers. Despite that, they raced hard in the varsity category alongside Lexi Ingano and Saffron Jacobs, with Lucia Gideonse coxing. They got a time of 24:09, and although they got last place, they rowed well and were excited to improve.

The next race was extremely important, as this was a novice race. The Novice Men's Coxed Quad raced for the first time, and despite them not having more than three days of practice together, they rowed remarkably well. They were placed in the Varsity category due to Textiles not having any novice quad categories, but they got a 23:23, and beat the only other novice quad in the race. They were all thrilled with the result, and look forward to improving upon it later in the season.

The next race was also very exciting. AD Charlton and Sabina Li were in the Women's Varsity Double, and they raced extremely well. They will be rowing in the Head of the Charles Regatta, so they have been doing a lot of endurance training, which paid off. This was about the time conditions on the water began to deteriorate, which has a bigger effect on doubles than larger boats. Nonetheless, AD and Sabina rowed through the choppy water extremely well, and got a time of 22:26 and a placement of 9/13, beating another boat by about a tenth of a second.

The first race after lunch was the Men's First Varsity Four. This was the largest race of the day, with twenty-five other boats racing. The lineup was Alex Bress as Coxswain, Owen Barczak-Kroll as bow, Jayden Wu as two seat, Henry Gregor as three seat, and Adam Sayres as four seat. The boys rowed through extremely choppy water, at one point coming to a full stop due to wake. They placed 14/26 with a time of 19:12. They were neutral on their placement, but were happy to know that there was only a minute difference between 14th place and third place.

After that was the Women's First Varsity Four. Sean Cowen coxed a lineup of Kaitlin Materazzo, Gianna Purifory, Sophie Hook, and Lillian Barabino to a time of 23:40, and 17th place. The conditions again slowed Medford down, as it became increasingly difficult for coxswains to steer, and for the rowers to properly balance the boat. The Women's V1 rowed through the conditions, and while they weren't thrilled, they know they have a lot of room for improvement, and are looking forward to the Head of the Quinsigamond in Worcester next week.

The next race was another novice race, as Emmett Berryman and Charlie Manning raced in the Novice Double category. Before the race, Coach Richard Stavros said that in these conditions, their goal was to finish, and they did. The conditions were especially bad around the 3000 meter mark. Nonetheless, the boys rowed a double in these conditions, and even beat a boat. They said later that they "almost flipped multiple times", but they finished their first race.

The next race is the final Head of the Charles Boat, with the Men's U17 Four. Coxed by Caleb Strauss, and rowed by Liam McCurdy, Andreas Suhm, Cameron Belanger and Patrick Waldron, they beat three other boats to claim a silver medal. This was Andreas' first race, so he was especially happy with this result. All of the rowers were extremely happy with this result, and are looking forward to rowing on the Charles.

The final race of the day was the Mixed Youth 4, with two different boats from Medford. In one of the boats, Alex Bress coxed a combination of two doubles with Owen Barczak-Kroll and Jayden Wu in stern and AD Charlton and Sabina Li in Bow. In the other boat, Sean Cowen coxed Henry Gregor and Adam Sayres in stern and Kaitlin Materazzo and Gianna Purifory. In an extremely exciting finish, Alex's boat got first place, and Sean's boat got second place, despite having no practice together. Furthermore, the boat in third was almost two minutes behind our boat in second, so the rowers were really happy with the results.