This past weekend, the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s rowing club teams traveled to Boston to compete in the 47th annual Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass.

The regatta is one of the biggest two-day rowing events in the world and features more than 8,000 athletes competing in 55 different events.

Despite being put head to head with varsity programs and some of the most prestigious rowing programs in the country, the Lakers managed to place favorably in all three events in which they participated.

“Grand Valley had a grand day on the Charles River,” said GVSU head coach John Bancheri. “It was a great weekend, I was really pleased with the performance of everyone. What really stood out was the quality of our underclassmen on the women’s team. They were young, and didn’t have that much experience, and they rowed a very tough race and they did a nice job. We were pleased with that.”

The GVSU women’s rowing club took third place in the Collegiate Eights Women event with a final time of 17 minutes, 22.29 seconds.

“We went into the regatta a little nervous because it was our first big regatta of the season, but we ended up doing exceptionally well,” said senior Lauren Adlof. “The whole environment was a little nerve racking. It was very different from Allendale, so we didn’t know what to expect. We did the best that we could and we were all pretty satisfied with the result.”

The men’s club finished fifth and fifteenth in the Collegiate Eights Men and Club Fours Men events, respectively, narrowly defeating teams like the University of Notre Dame and Boston University. Their final times were 15:31.06 and 18:19.27.

“It was a little tiring, but everyone was excited to learn how well we had placed,” said senior Jimmie Wilkie. “The women took third and the men took fifth out of forty schools which is nice because we were facing varsity programs and even Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Brown. To find out that we’re close to those guys skill-wise is a big deal for us.”

Not only are these rankings significant for the Lakers this season, but they will provide opportunities for GVSU rowing in the future as well.

“If you finish in the top half of the competition, you’re automatically entered for next year,” Bancheri said. “If you don’t, you have to enter a lottery, because they can only handle a certain number of boats in the regatta. All of our crews made the top half, so we’re all pretty happy about that.”

On Saturday, the GVSU rowers that participated in the Head of the Charles Regatta will take a break in order to attend the weekend’s homecoming festivities, giving other Lakers a chance to row in the Head of the Eagle Regatta in Indianapolis this weekend.

“We want to give everyone a chance to race, and at this point, we wanted to make sure everyone got equal time,” Wilkie said. “Michigan and Michigan State will be there, so it’s one of our bigger events of the fall. Everyone’s pretty excited.”

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