They say a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. The same may be true for rowing. On Oct. 28 and 29, Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowers competed at the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga Springs, New York, but didn’t hook any medals. Still, the team made a very respectable showing. The girls first varsity 4 turned in BA-B’s top finish, fourth place in a field of 29, outpaced only by private Connecticut clubs. The boys first varsity 8 clocked the team’s fastest time at just over 11 minutes.
The regatta saw 144 teams enter 1,809 boats. In keeping with BA-B tradition, the varsity girls rowed the 3,200-meter course in Halloween costumes, running the gamut this year from Guy Fieri to characters from “Little House on the Prairie.”
Athletes were subjected to headwinds, mitigated by glorious sunshine, on Saturday; the more typical miserable, cold rain came Sunday. “We were battling not just other crews, but to stay warm,” said Gary Piantedosi, head coach of the varsity boys. The team’s bus driver kept the bus open and the heat on for chilly kids in between races. “It was a tough weekend for results, but my guys showed me a lot of character by their willingness to continue to go out and race hard,” Piantedosi said.
Holly Hatton, head coach of the varsity girls, said, “I’ve been looking for a really strong result in the varsity 4, which hasn’t quite come this fall until Sunday,” when they placed fourth—just three seconds out of first place against powerhouses Greenwich and Connecticut Boat Club. “Our other crews had solid performances in some very rough conditions,” she said. “We close out the fall having made some good progress.”
Novice and middle-school crews competed at the Massachusetts Public Schools Regatta Association’s Fall Championship Regatta on the Merrimack River in Lowell. “All the crews trained hard these past two weeks and it showed in the water, with medals and strong time improvements since the Textile River Regatta,” said Christopher Whitbeck, who coaches the middle-schoolers and the novice boys.
With these two regattas, the team has completed its fall racing. The rowers have removed their docks from the town beach and will watch the water fill the pond in the spring in anticipation of another season.
Jill Maxwell is a B A-B mom and auntie.
Head of the Fish results
Varsity boys
- U17 1x: Patrick Tucker, 32nd place, 15:31.04; Noah Kim, 49th, 16:34.3
- U19 1x: Leo Sullivan, 11th, 14:38.35; Atticus Keep, 35th, 16:20.74; Wyatt Neville, 37th, 16:32.15; Shankara Rao, 42nd, 17:21.99
- U17 2x: Noah Kim and Russell Poutasse, 16th, 14:09.57
- V2x: Sam Goldgar and Jeffrey Wang, 33rd, 14:15.61
- 1V4+: Atticus Keep, Henry Belanger, Leo Sullivan, Ulad Danilovich, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, 15th, 11:44.90
- 2V4+: Alex Horton, Gavin Datta, Trevor Mangus, Sam Goldgar, and coxswain Topher Korka, 21st, 13:54.99
- V4x+: Alex Horton, Jeffrey Wang, Patrick Tucker, Noah Kim, and coxswain Topher Korka, seventh, 12:37.97
- 1V8+: Atticus Keep, Ulad Danilovich, Leo Sullivan, Parker Cole, Henry Belanger, Patrick Tucker, Shankara Rao, Russell Poutasse, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, 15th, 11:01.91
- 3V8+: Noah Friedman, Charlie Leuci, Andrew Zhang, Dino Mehic, Maxton Zilinek, Miles Dusett, Alex Han, Kyle Sharma, and coxswain Sophia Marder, 13th, 13:24.24
Varsity girls
- U17 1x: Will Stoddard, sixth place, 16:49.30; Beatrice Maxwell, ninth, 16:52.72; Johnny Greenberg, 23rd, 17:41.26; Braeden Hartley, 31st, 18:05.26
- U19 1x: Emily Yang, 24th, 17:08.89; Emma Gregg, 27th, 17:19.25
- U17 2x: Nix Klein and Abby Hirschberg, 24th, 15:19.99
- V2x: Ava Dawn and Izzi Walker, 25th, 14:40.03
- U17 4+: Ellie Daly, Emma Lawson, Johnny Greenberg, Emily Yang, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, 10th, 13:42.74
- 1V4+: Beatrice Maxwell, Braeden Hartley, Emma Gregg, Will Stoddard, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas, fourth, 12:38.76
- 2V4+: Elizabeth Feirouz, Reval Argow-Snyderman, Yolander Yang, Nina Manglani, and coxswain Sera Baang, 13:54.80; Alexis Nichols, Nix Klein, Abby Hirschberg, Nooriya Taherbhoy, and coxswain Sophia Marder: 16th, 14:47.84
- 1V8+: Beatrice Maxwell, Braeden Hartley, Emma Gregg, Will Stoddard, Emma Lawson, Johnny Greenberg, Emily Yang, Ellie Daly, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, 12th, 12:02.70
- 2V8+: Reval Argow-Snyderman, Elizabeth Feirouz, Nina Manglani, Yolander Yang, Alexis Nichols, Ava Dawn, Piper Sheehan, Izzi Walker, and coxswain Sera Baang, 11th, 13:01.74
