Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowers and their counterparts across the region have been stymied by the very river on which they were scheduled to compete.
High flow and debris in the Merrimack River made conditions unsafe for the Amber Zapatka Memorial Regatta on May 10 and 11 and the US Rowing Northeast Regional Championship on May 17 and 18. Massachusetts Environmental Police revoked permits for both Lowell contests.
The team quickly pivoted on May 17, sending boats on trailers and food in the team chuck wagon down to Fall River, where they were able to compete as last-minute entries in the South Watuppa Sprints 2. No actual medals were awarded, but five of the team’s varsity and novice crews reached the proverbial podium on the 1,500-meter course. The team’s top result was a decisive first-place finish from the novice girls 4, 12.5 seconds ahead of the next crew in a field of six.
When girls varsity coach Holly Hatton heard that Saturday races for Regionals were 86’d, she called Fall River’s Watuppa Rowing Center to see if they would extend their registration deadline for the South Watuppa Sprints 2 on Saturday morning. Watuppa obliged. Hatton checked the registrations. There was one girls 8 signed up. Other programs must have had the same idea, because by 4 p.m. Friday, there were six or seven entered. At 5 p.m., the decision to also cancel Sunday’s portion of the Lowell races came down. Hatton immediately registered B-AB crews for Watuppa. By the 6 p.m. cutoff time, there were 15 crews registered for the girls 8.
Heavy fog beset the race course, causing a 50-minute delay while the girls double was rowing to the start. “Henry went out blind,” Hatton said of Acton-Boxborough senior Henry Belanger, who sculled a single to a second-place finish. Race officials could not set stakeboats, fixed points used as a starting line, in the soupy conditions. Racers executed the floating start method of gathering a bit before the starting line and moving toward it in unison, waiting for marshalls to call “go.” One novice boys race ended in collisions; fortunately for BA-B their two novice boys crews were in the other heat.
The big Connecticut clubs entered multiple crews in each event so the competition was formidable, but the team acquitted itself with strong times, and coaches and athletes were grateful for the opportunity. Founded in 2018, Watuppa Rowing Center’s programs are free for youths. “Any volunteer that walked by, we thanked them,” Hatton said. “We feel fortunate that we even got to race, and we want to thank them for opening their doors.” Belanger reflected, “I’d say it’s definitely a little bit sad, being one of my last races, especially with the cancellations. And it was kind of crazy waking up at 3:30 to get there and rig my single. But it was certainly worth it—I had a lot of fun and a really nice finish.”
Two BA-B girls crews will enter the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Championships on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey, on May 24 and 25. The full team wraps up its spring season with the Massachusetts Public Schools Rowing Association’s State Championship Regatta on the Merrimack in Lowell on May 25—if the water allows.
Jill Maxwell is a BA-B parent and longtime sports contributor for the Harvard Press.
Results South Watuppa Sprints 2
Varsity girls
- 2x: Will Stoddard and Caroline Yang, second place, 6 minutes, 12.1 seconds
- 4+: Izzi Walker, Alicia Tang, Autumn DesClos, Abby Hirschberg, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, third, 6:12.9; Ainsley Charland, Reval Argow-Sniderman, Abby Depew, Grace Connor, and coxswain Sofi Marder, second, 6:28.4
- 8+: Ellie Daly, Ava Dawn, Emma Gregg, Emma Lawson, Beatrice Maxwell, Johnny Greenberg, Emily Yang, Braeden Hartley, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas, fourth, 4:53.9; Gabby Shee, Sravya Hamsala, Nix Klein, Megha Nookala, Annabelle Purcell, Ellie Pulido, Margaux Lehouck, Alexis Nichols, and coxswain Gwynnie Poutasse, fifth, 5:52.3
Varsity boys
- 1x: Henry Belanger, second place, 8 minutes, 36.7 seconds (this event was 2,000 meters; after that they shortened the course due to fog)
- 2x: William O’Donnell and Julian Fariello, fourth, 5:58.8
- 4+: Alex Horton, Reid Nelson, Henry Belanger, Gavin Datta, and coxswain Austin Lai, 4th, 4:49.6; Parker Cole, Uladzimir Danilovich, Shankara Rao, Atticus Keep, and coxswain Noah Kim, 4th, 5:33.1
- 4x: Alex Pearce, Mihir Vidhate, Thomas Knight, and Liam Abayasinghe, fourth, 7:02.2
