Two Bromfield Acton-Boxborough crews finished third at the Head of the Fish regatta on Oct. 30 and 31, their final race of the fall season. The boys and girls lightweight 4s brought home bronze medals from the Saratoga Springs, New York, event. While no one nabbed a first-place fish head plaque, the signature award of this 35-year-old regatta, 12 of the 18 BA-B boats that entered turned in top-10 finishes. “All of the crews worked together and rowed well in tough weather conditions and against tough competition,” said Chris Whitbeck, the assistant coach of the varsity boys.
More than 1,500 boats from more than 120 registered teams completed the 3,200-meter course in drizzle and light winds.
Bromfield sophomores Leo Sullivan and Jorgen Johannesen rowed in the lightweight 4, which had practiced together for only one day on the water. “It was fun rowing in something that was not an 8 for a race, because that’s all I’ve done until now. Especially with two second varsity rowers and another third,” Sullivan said, referring to his boatmates. Johannesen said, “I wouldn’t have been able to get a medal if it wasn’t for everyone on the team. It felt good to win a medal, not just for myself but for the whole BA-B team.”
Amita Khurana, a junior at Bromfield, coxed the girls lightweight 4. Their medal came as a very pleasant surprise, Khurana said. Two crews passed the BA-B squad, and then a novice double turned suddenly and collided with them, despite Khurana’s calls to yield. “We lost like 30 seconds,” she said. “We thought we might have been disqualified, because we could have endangered the double.” It turned out that the boats that passed them were the first- and second-place finishers.
The other surprise for Khurana was the mud. The picturesque venue, a campground beside Fish Creek, was mired in muck. Bales of hay strewn about did little to mitigate the squishy footing for spectators and athletes alike.”Everyone told me it would be muddy, but I was just shocked,” Khurana said, adding, “It was really fun. There was excitement in the air.”
Holly Hatton, the team’s rowing program director, noted that BA-B had had a strong showing at the Head of the Fish. “We have to keep in perspective that we are a public high school program, one of the few that continue to hold their own against the powerhouse clubs of the Northeast region,” she said. Referring to BA-B’s many top-10 results, she added, “I think that was a successful end to the fall season.” Whitbeck added, “We can’t wait to get back on the water in the spring.” But for now, rowers will now hang up their oars.
Varsity Girls
- Girls Junior U19 1x: Courtney Clark, 15:48.21, 28th place
- Girls Junior U17 1x: Eliza Straayer, 14:30.63, 4th; Rachel Walker, 15:40.00, 27th
- Girls Junior Lightweight 2x-: Rachel Walker and Zoe Gendreau-Distler, 15:56.13, 5th; Yolander Yang and Evelyn Huang, 18:57.26, 14th
- Girls Junior Lightweight 4+: Alissa Horton, Mia Hartley, Nina Manglani, Jadyn Whitney, and coxswain Amita Khurana, 14:12.66, 3rd
- Girls Junior 1V4x-: Sophia Atwell, Sydney Collet-Callahan, Nosara Maxwell, and Courtney Clark, 14:49.49, 14th
- Girls Junior 1V4+: Eliza Straayer, Sanjana Rao, Zoe Gendreau-Distler, Melanie Bodtman, and coxswain Sophie Thompson, 14:40.47, 6th
- Girls Junior 1V8+: Sanjana Rao, Sydney Collet-Callahan, Zoe Gendreau-Distler, Eliza Straayer, Nosara Maxwell, Sophia Atwell, Courtney Clark, Melanie Bodtman, and coxswain Sophie Thompson, 13:23.14, 9th
- Girls Junior 2V8+: Alissa Horton, Mia Hartley, Norah Greene, Rachel Walker, Nina Manglani, Yolander Yang, Evelyn Huang, Jadyn Whitney, and coxswain Amita Khurana, 14:20.85, 6th
Varsity Boys
- Boys Junior U19 1x: Ewan Smith, 13:29.02, 14th place; Asher Ryba, 14:31.63, 33rd
- Boys Junior U17 1x: Charles Maxwell, 13:46.98, 9th; Milo Whitbeck, 15:09.75, 23rd
- Boys Junior 2x-: Asher Ryba and Clark Hanlon, 13:01.85, 5th; William Pharo and Milo Whitbeck, 14:29.42, 23rd
- Boys Junior 1V4+: Ewan Smith, Ryan Crowley, Charles Maxwell, Clark Hanlon, and coxswain Lucas Villaseñor, 12:26.32, 6th
- Boys Junior 2V4+: William Pharo, Thomas Keefe, Asher Ryba, Aditya Balchandra, and coxswain Ben Bluth, 13:19.21, 7th
- Boys Junior 1V4x-: Abraham Rahman, Adam Castriollta, Nikhil Suri, and Noah Stein, 13:55.19, 16th
- Boys Junior Lightweight 4+: Stanley Yuan, Derek Uhrich, Leo Sullivan, Jorgen Johannesen, and coxswain Nathan Kushner, 13:51.59, 3rd
- Boys Junior 1V8+: Ewan Smith, Ryan Crowley, Asher Ryba, Thomas Keefe, Clark Hanlon, Charles Maxwell, William Pharo, Aditya Balchandra, and coxswain Lucas Villaseñor, 12:05.30, 16th
- Boys Junior 2V8+: Nikhil Suri, Abraham Rahman, Stanley Yuan, Derek Uhrich, Willam Thomas, Milo Whitbeck, Adam Castriotta, Noah Stein, and coxswain Ben Bluth, 12:50.67, 12th
- Boys Junior 3V8+: Leo Sullivan, Aidan Lemke, Sam Goldgar, Jorgen Johannesen, Trevor Magnus, Jeffery Chang, Darren Quek, Kyle Sharma, and coxswain Nathan Kushner, 14:48.78, 10th
