A festive, if soggy, atmosphere prevailed on Sunday, April 19, for Bromfield Acton-Boxborough (BA-B) Rowing’s only home regatta, the Harvard Henley on Harvard’s Bare Hill Pond. BA-B hosted Brookline, Shrewsbury, and Wayland-Weston (WW). Brookline girls went home with the trophy for fastest girls varsity 8; Wayland-Weston was fastest amongst boys. WW also laid down the most first-place finishes, earning the team points trophy.
The BA-B girls second varsity 8 won their event, and the BA-B girls third varsity 4, which was the only 4 to race before officials cancelled afternoon events, came in second. The boys and girls first varsity 8s each lost their first heats but won their petite finals – essentially finishing third place on the day.
Morning fog rendered visibility zero on the pond, so officials delayed the regatta’s start by 90 minutes. Rain poured down. Athletes and spectators huddled under their team’s food tent canopies while tunes rocked over the PA system. Once racing began, clusters of teens cheered for their teammates. Crews launched from docks at the beach, rowed to the far west side of the pond, and then raced back towards the finish line near Rock Island.
Shortly before 2:00 p.m., race officials monitoring the weather spotted a lightning cell on the radar about 20 miles away. “Typically at 10 miles, it’s immediate evacuation,” said Holly Hatton, who coaches the varsity girls. “In five minutes, it changed from 20 to 13 miles away.” Knowing that it takes about ten minutes to get boats off the water, race officials called everyone to shore. The Harvard Police cleared the beach. Visiting teams took shelter in their buses, and officials cancelled the rest of the day’s races, which were the smaller boats.
“It’s never an easy decision,” Hatton said. “But we had tents, we had boats in slings, and everything needs to be secured. Our safety procedures move further out in time than most sports because we can’t just run into the gym.”
Catherine Chappell, the program director and coach of the varsity boys, said the team made the best of a tough situation. “It was obviously disappointing to not race the fours, the double, and the pair because that’s all we have been practicing,” she said, “but I am really proud of these guys for hopping into an 8 for only the second time and racing so well.”
BA-B novice girls didn’t race, and the novice boys raced unopposed. Three rowers on the BA-B middle school squad raced themselves; no other team fielded entries for eighth graders. “It can be really easy to feel discouraged that you aren’t racing any other teams, but the 8th grade team is incredible at motivating each other and taking up any challenge,” said their coach, Bromfield senior Will Stoddard. “Especially with the very limited time we’ve had on the water so far this season with the weather and water levels, I was so impressed at what they were able to do.”
Varsity Girls Results
1V8+: Ava Dawn, Beth Belanger, Piper Candon, Etta Maxwell, Amelia McCormack, Ellery Thomas, Braeden Hartley, Emily Yang, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas; 1st in petite final; 3 minutes, 55.51 seconds
2V8+: Lily Lem Moustakas, Caroline Yang, Gabby Kim, Reval Argow-Sniderman, Maroon Kendrick, Simone Taylor, Autumn Desclos, Alica Tang, and coxswain Gwynnie Poutasse; 1st in grand final; 4:01.97
3V4+: Stasia Bolberova, Gabby Kim, Nix Klein, Ada Hubbell, and coxswain Yuvika Rao; 2nd in grand final; 4:42.01
Varsity Boys Results
1V8+: Hangfang Dong, Ben Rosenman, Mihir Vidhate, Xander Swydan, Teddy Stoddard, Eric Bian, Patrick Tucker, Oscar Maxwell, and coxswain Noah Kim; 3 minutes, 31.09 seconds; 1st in petite final.
Jill Maxwell is a parent volunteer for the Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowing team.
