Trinity Rowing Navigates Curves and Crashes in Eventful Head of the Charles, Wins Big at Schuylkill

Ashley McDermott ’26

Executive Sports Editor

Trinity Rowing Navigates Curves and Crashes in Eventful Head of the Charles, Wins Big at Schuylkill

The Trinity College men and women’s rowing team raced in the 2025 Head of the Charles Regatta. The Head of the Charles Regatta is a three-day annual rowing competition that takes place on the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event lasted 3 days, from Friday, Oct. 17 to Sunday, Oct. 19, with Trinity competing on Sunday. Each team achieved excellent results, building from the accomplishments of the previous season. Earlier this season, the men’s team was presented their rings for the 2025 IRA National Champions, from their strong performance this past spring. The women’s team was ranked as 3rd in the College Rowing Coaches Association rankings at the end of the previous semester, but was knocked out of the NESCAC championship, though not before making it into the top five at the end of the race. 

Currently, the men’s team is led by Coach Kevin MacDermott, who is in his 16th year at Trinity. The Trinity men’s team is divided into boats A and B for the Men’s Collegiate 8+, while the Women’s team has three boats, A, B and C on the water for the same challenge. Both programs also race in the Collegiate 4+, represented by a single A boat.  

In the Men’s Collegiate 8+, Trinity’s A boat finished fourth overall, with a time of 14:42.344, beating out many NESCAC opponents such as Williams, Bates, Wesleyan, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury and Bowdoin. The B entry followed with a time of 15:38.914 in 30th. Trinity’s A entry featured 8: Wyatt Mills ’26, 7: William Carroll ’28, 6: Jackson Moore ’26, 5: James McGarry ’26, 4: Brett Sandford ’29, 3: Steffen Oosten ’27, 2: Kaori Graham-Myrie ’28, 1: Jack Lambros ’26 and coxswain Alenka Doyle ’26. Trinity finished in 16th place with a time of 16:53.392 in the Men’s Collegiate 4+, ahead of fellow NESCACs Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Bates, Connecticut College and Amherst.

The Trinity Women’s Rowing team competed in the Women’s Collegiate 8+ with three entries, and the Collegiate 4+ with a single entry. The team is led by Head Coach Peter Graves, who has been working with the team for four years. 

Trinity A finished in 4th in Women’s Collegiate Eights at the Head of the Charles on Oct. 19. Overall time was 17:14.988, beating NESCACs Wellesley, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Bates, Hamilton, Colby and Bowdoin. Other boats, B and C, finished in 12th at 17:45.897 and 25th at 18:29.263, respectively. Trinity’s A entry included 8: Eliza Terrell ’28, 7: Zoe Ritter ’28, 6: Tessa Griffin ’27’, 5: Allie Newman ’26, 4: Kaitlyn Mackin ’26, 3: Scarlett Coke ’29, 2: Erin Barbakoff ’26, 1: Sophia Romano ’26 and coxswain Julianna Boris ’26. The Women’s Collegiate 4+ group placed 18th at 20:10.843, ahead of Middlebury, Wesleyan and Bowdoin. 

Women’s rowing captains, Boris and Newman, commented on the race. They told the Tripod, “It was a shocking race given the traffic we faced. The Head of the Charles is notoriously a ‘coxswain’s race’ due to the difficulty of the turns and steering through six bridges. At two of the bridges in the middle of the race, two other crews were not yielding to our boat rowing at a faster pace. This resulted in two crashes, totaling 35 seconds of sitting dead still.” Despite this challenge, the rowers persisted and completed the race. 

They added, “At the end of the race, I felt a mix of emotions. I was upset that we got into two crashes that were out of our control, I was sad that we were not able to show our best performance, but I was also very proud of our boat for regrouping after the collisions and rowing the rest of the race with even more fire and intensity than before. Throughout the season we have been focusing on rowing our race and not letting what is happening in boats around us affect our mentality. I believe that we raced as fast as we could given the disadvantages we faced in the race, and it was pretty miraculous that we walked away with a medal as well. Our team is more fired up than ever approaching our winter training season and we are looking to get some revenge this spring.”

The women’s team also swept the podium at the Head of the Schuylkill. Eleanor Burke ’26 and Lake Zajac ‘27 claimed the top spots within the women’s collegiate singles, and Terrell’s shell placed 1st in the women’s collegiate quad. The Bantam’s College Frosh/Novice Eights boat earned 4th place.