Bromfield Acton-Boxborough rowers spun up some gold (and some bronze) at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell on Sunday, Oct. 5. After water levels wreaked havoc for team practices and competitions throughout the 2025 spring season, the team has turned over a new leaf this fall, with a new program director and boys varsity coach, Catherine Chappell. The varsity girls coxed quad and U17 4 took home enormous gold medals; the boys varsity 4 and the girls second varsity 8 scored the bronze versions.
The sun shone hot on the 4,500-meter Merrimack River course. The competitors and their parents guzzled all the Gatorade and water in their chuckwagon tent as BA-B athletes rowed two, and in the case of Bromfield sophomores Teddy Stoddard and Ellery Thomas and A-B junior Gabriella Shee, three times. Thomas and Etta Maxwell hot-seated from a double into an 8, running the course back to back in the unusual 80-degree October temps.
Because Bare Hill Pond’s small size gives the rowers just over 1,000 meters of practice distance, the coaches view these long fall head races as dual purpose: competition and a training day, said Holly Hatton, the varsity girls head coach. One of the team’s goals, Hatton said, is to build lineups fast enough to finish in the top half of their events at the Head of the Charles later this month. The top half finishers automatically qualify for the following year; this year the team will contend with fields from 30 to 82 crews deep. Two BA-B crews winning gold at Textile was “pretty exciting,” Hatton said, adding, “It’s really a year-long plan to get stronger and fitter for spring, and right now it looks like both boys and girls teams had a good start.”
Next up for the team: the New England Fall Championship Regatta on Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond, Sunday, Oct. 12.
Jill Maxwell is a BA-B parent and auntie.
Textile River Regatta, Oct. 5
The number indicates how many rowers are in the boat; “+” means there’s a coxswain; “x” means two oars per rower.
Varsity girls
- 2x: Gabriella Shee and Ainsley Charland; ninth place, 19 minutes, 27.975 seconds
- U17 2x: Etta Maxwell and Ellery Thomas; 11th, 21:11.406; Lily Lem Moustakas and Piper Candon; 13th, 21:59.380
- 4x+: Emily Yang, Braeden Hartley, Eleanor Daly, Ava Dawn, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas; first, 16:18.899
- 4+A: Caroline Yang, Abigail Hirschberg, Alicia Tang, Isabel Walker, and coxswain Gwyneth Poutasse; eighth, 17:42.505
- U17 4+: Beth Belanger, Ellery Thomas, Simone Taylor, Amelia McCormick, and coxswain Yuvika Rao; first, 17:57.530; Gabriella Kim, Sophia Lopez, Lily Lem Moustakas, Gabriella Shee, and coxswain Gwyneth Poutasse; fourth, 19:18.079
- 8+A: Emily Yang, Braeden Hartley, Eleanor Daly, Ava Dawn, Caroline Yang, Abigail Hirschberg, Reval Argow-Sniderman, Isabel Walker, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas; fifth, 15:52.346
- 8+B: Alicia Tang, Annabelle Purcell, Autumn Desclos, Nix Klein, Ainsley Charland, Sophia Pierce, Sravya Hamsala, Gabriella Shee, and coxswain Gwyneth Poutasse; third, 16:30.970
- U17 8+: Beth Belanger, Ellery Thomas, Simone Taylor, Amelia McCormick, Etta Maxwell, Piper Candon, Gabriella Kim, Maroon Kendrick, and coxswain Yuvika Rao; fourth, 17:01.736
Varsity boys
- 4+A: Patrick Tucker, Hanfang Dong, Teddy Stoddard, Oscar Maxwell, and coxswain Noah Kim; third place, 15 minutes, 9.929
- 4+B: Liam Abayasinghe, Aidan Abayasinghe, Teddy Stoddard, Ben Rosenman, and coxswain Austin Lai; fouth; 16:12.905; Bilal Tate, Mihir Vidhate, Eric Bian, Maxton Zilinek, and coxswain Mason Wade; 14th, 17:32.255
- 8+A: Eric Bian, Hanfang Dong, Liam Abayasinghe, Aidan Abayasinghe, Teddy Stoddard, Ben Rosenman, Patrick Tucker, Oscar Maxwell, and coxswain Noah Kim; seventh, 14:30.100
