A panoply of Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowers, coxswains, alumni, and coaches competed in the 2023 Head of the Charles on Saturday, Oct. 21, and Sunday, Oct. 22. The current varsity girls 4 finished in the top half of its event, which means the team has one guaranteed berth next year. The varsity boys fared less well and will have to gain entries via lottery in 2024. BA-B’s Will Stoddard scored a silver medal in an inclusion double with a South African pararower.
Eliza Straayer (A-B ’23) helped her Duke club 4 to a gold medal —and a course record in that event. Summer Maxwell (A-B ’20) and her Tufts crew won gold in the womens collegiate 8. And Matthew Atwell (Bromfield ’21), rowing for UCLA in the mens collegiate 4, finished fourth.
Depending on how many boats are entered in a given event, Head of the Charles awards up to five medals, and Atwell will get one, though his team had to skip the ceremony to scramble for its flight back.
Emily Erdos (Bromfield ’15), coxed a Princeton alumnae 8 to a fourth-place finish on Saturday and then ran the course again Sunday as the coxswain of one of three U.S. national team 8s, finishing sixth. Stefan Scornavaca (Bromfield ’20) and his Boston University club 8 finished fourth as well.
The world-famous regatta, the largest multiday rowing contest on the planet, drew 11,000 athletes. Conditions varied from fast water on Friday to soaking rain Saturday and stiff headwinds on Sunday. Two hundred thousand spectators lined the course, notoriously tricky with six bridges, one 90-degree turn, and one 180-degree turn. And while not every BA-B boat made the podium, some of their stories are pure gold.
Bromfield sophomore Will Stoddard (left) rows with a pararower, Dieter Rosslee, in the inclusion doubles event at the Head of the Charles race on Saturday, Oct. 21. (Courtesy photo)
BA-B crews
Sophomores Will Stoddard (Bromfield) and Emily Yang (A-B) competed in inclusion doubles, which means they were partnered with pararowers, athletes who have a disability that decreases their ability to propel a boat. Stoddard’s partner was Dieter Rosslee, who uses his legs, trunk, and arms to race. Yang rowed with Robert “James” Duncan from Iowa, who uses his trunk and arms. Stoddard and Yang both had to steer, and both had studied the course extensively. This was their first time competing in the Head of the Charles, and they met their partners the night before the race.
It was not easy for the rowers to match their strokes. Rosslee, who has competed in Olympic and world championship regattas, is 6 feet, 3 inches tall—about 5 inches taller than Stoddard. “We ended up finding a really good swing about 20 strokes before the race,” Stoddard said. They also used different terms and calls. “In South Africa,” Stoddard said, “they don’t use starboard and port!”
They passed another boat in the first 1,000 meters and made a clean turn at Anderson Bridge, with Stoddard “acting like a coxswain in the bow seat. I just kept yelling,” they said. Their combined effort was rewarded with second place in a field of 15. Stoddard and Rosslee attended a USRowing event in celebration of changes that regatta organizers are making, like putting in ramps, to make regattas more accessible to all rowers, coaches, referees, and spectators. Stoddard appreciated the opportunity “to row with someone with so much more experience than you have, who has seen a whole different side of the sport and knows a lot more. They’re amazing people who enjoy rowing and want to see other people enjoy rowing,” they said.
Yang’s first challenge was to match Duncan’s much higher stroke rate. Duncan, a pararowing national champion, doesn’t use leg power—his seat does not slide. Consequently, his trunk and arms work much harder.
But more tests were in store for this double. By the time they launched, temperatures were in the low 50s and it was windy and raining hard. “We were both shaking at the start,” Yang said. Then something else went wrong: Duncan had a problem with his hip and could use only his arms. He tried to turn around to tell Yang, but she couldn’t hear him. “I kept screaming ‘heads in!’” Yang said. Duncan’s stroke rate got even faster, but he was in so much pain that they completely stopped three times. “Our speed was not what we wanted,” Yang said. “That was not our plan.”
After crossing the finish line, Yang steered them to a launch where first-aid providers wrapped the hypothermic Duncan in plastic sheets. The launch driver took both rowers aboard; they abandoned their shell in the water. Yang said Duncan is now OK. “I was really shocked at that moment,” she said, “but I am really glad we did it. I know that I can steer well and handle a situation even if it’s not part of my plan. I’m proud of the steering, and I’m proud of James for finishing the race.”
The girls varsity 4 went up against 89 crews and a blustery headwind on Sunday. “As a relatively lighter crew, they did a great job holding their own in those conditions,” said their coach, Holly Hatton. The rowers reportedly told Hatton that their coxswain, Hanna Lem Moustakas, “had a great course,” and all in all “the crew felt like they had a really strong race.”
The boys quad and 8 were not able to row their best in that wind and water, said Gary Piantedosi, their coach. “Although we were not victorious, we did race hard, and regardless of the outcome, it is always special to take part in this, the world’s largest rowing pageant.”
Alumni
In addition to 16 former BA-B athletes competing for their respective colleges, BA-B had its own alumnae entry, a 4, coxed by Courtney Robb Rosani (A-B ’17) and rowed by Bromfield grads Anna Shlimak (’20) and Anya Buchovecky (’21) with A-B teammates Rachel Walker (’23) and Zoe Flanzer (’20). They placed sixth and are guaranteed a berth in the same event next year. “It was a blast to reconnect with high school friends and sit in a boat together with them again,” Buchovecky said. Shlimak added, “BA-B always feels like home so it was great to be back even if only for a day.”
Coaches
The team’s new program director, CB Sands-Bohrer, nabbed a silver medal in the grand master double. Hatton coxed fellow former Olympians to fifth place in the grand master veteran 8s.
The team has just one more weekend of competition before rowers hang up their oars for the season. Varsity crews will travel to Saratoga Springs, New York, for the Head of the Fish regatta on Saturday, Oct. 28, and Sunday, Oct. 29. Novice and middle school athletes will compete in the Massachusetts Public Schools Regatta Association’s state championship regatta in Lowell on Sunday, Oct. 29.
Jill Maxwell is a BA-B parent and auntie.
Head of the Charles Results
Friday, Oct. 20
- Womens Grand Master Doubles (60+): CB Sands-Bohrer, team program director, Cambridge Boat Club, second place, 19:50.126
Saturday, Oct. 21
- Womens Senior Master 8: Alison Shaw Thornton, former coach, Old Glory, 14th place, 19:17.773; Amy Burke, former board member, Westford Community, 28th, 21:31.683
- Womens Grand Master 8: Holly Hatton, coach, États-Unis, fifth, 19:26.603
- Womens Alumnae 8: Emily Erdos, Fat Cat, fourth, 16:13.645; Katie Erdos, Ever Green, 18th, 17:40.052
- Mens Alumni Fours: Kevin Immerman, University of Vermont, 12th, 18:24.312; Julia Dexter, Hobart, 23rd, 19:31.444
- Womens Alumnae Four: Anna Shlimak, Anya Buchovecky, Rachel Walker, Zoe Flanzer, and coxswain Courtney (Robb) Rosani, sixth, 19:48.781
- Womens Club’s Fours: Eliza Straayer, Duke, first, 17:46.122
- Mens Club 8: Stefan Scornavacca, Boston University, fourth, 14:31.495; Christopher Clark, Holy Cross, 18th, 15:09.963; Audrey Maxwell, Middlebury, 26th, 15:54.604
- Womens Club 8: Sanjana Rao, Tufts, 21st, 17:33.384
- Director’s Challenge Mixed 2x: Cindy Tingle, former coach, Cambridge Boat Club, 19th, 19:42.692
- Para Mixed Inclusion Doubles: Will Stoddard, BA-B, and Rosslee, University of Johannesburg, second, 20:45.954; Emily Yang, BA-B, and James Duncan, Hawkeye Community Rowing, 21st, 27:44.559
Sunday, Oct. 22
- Mens Youth Coxed Quad: Noah Kim, Patrick Tucker, Jeffery Wang, Alexander Horton, and coxswain Christopher Korka, 42nd, 20:19.158
- Mens Youth 8: Uladzimir Danilovich, Shankara Rao, Jorgen Johannesen, Henry Belanger, Parker Cole, Leo Sullivan, Aiden Nolde, Atticus Keep, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, 79th, 18:16.294
- Womens Youth 4: Johnny Greenberg, Emma Gregg, Braeden Hartley, Beatrice Maxwell, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas, 19th, 20:37.855
- Womens Lightweight 4: Sophie Thompson, MIT, 10th, 22:27.708
- Womens Championship 8: Emily Erdos, USRowing, sixth, 16:26.362
- Womens Collegiate 8: Summer Maxwell, Tufts, first, 18:03.969; Kaylee Liu, Wellesley, 10th, 18:31.542; Rachel Shrives, Wellesley, 20th, 19:10.607; Celeste Keep, Mt. Holyoke, 24th, 19:28.509; Sophia DeFoe, Connecticut College, 32nd, 20:37.586
- Mens Collegiate 4: Matthew Atwell, UCLA, fourth, 17:23.067
- Director’s Challenge Mixed Quad: Cindy Tingle, former coach, Cambridge Boat Club, 16th, 19:26.773
