Oct. 24, 2008

Washington, D.C. - This past weekend, Georgetown Crew competed in the fall's premier event, the 44th Annual Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass. The Hoyas turned in strong times versus tough competition on the most challenging head course in the United States.

The men's heavyweight four placed 10th out of 21. That boat consisted of Grant Morrow (Sewickley, Pa./Lawrenceville School) at stroke, Ben Coyne (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional), Tom Carroll (Fayetteville, Ga./McCallie), and Jae Lee (Norwood, Mass./Norwood) and was coxed by Victoria Stulgis (Charlestown, Mass./Buckingham, Browne & Nichols.

"I was very pleased with the performance of the Four," Head Coach Tony Johnson said. "Heading into the race we were a little uncertain of how they would perform, but they managed to do just fine."

The men's heavyweight eight placed 26th, an improvement on last year's performance. The eight consisted of Andrew Federer (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) at stroke, Paul Keith (Windsor, Calif./Windsor), Spencer Almy (Portland, Ore./Grant), Joe Ledvina (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI), Brian Gallagher (Napa, Calif./Justin-Siena), Chuck Hartwig (Greendale, Wis./Martin Luther), Max Mickiewicz (Osprey, Fla./Pine View) and Bryan Chismar (The Woodlands, Texas/American School in London) and was coxed by Jack Carlson (Cambridge, Mass./Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School).

"We are trying to establish an identity with this year's Eight," Johnson said. "Today's race was a good step in the right direction."

"Though we passed St. Joe's with relative ease, we are not pleased with our performance in the eight," senior heavyweight co-captain Carlson said. "This is, however, a squad with a lot of potential. The four did all right, especially considering how little they had rowed together. They passed Dartmouth near the beginning of the race, and they finished well enough to earn us an automatic entry for next year."

The Heavyweight Four placed 10th out of 21 teams and the Heavyweight Eight finished 26th out of a very strong field of 37 Championship crews, a leap forward from their 30th place finish last year.

The Lightweight Men saw a significant improvement over their results a year ago. For the second straight year, the lightweight four finished third among colleges but improved from eighth overall in 2007 to a strong fifth this past weekend. In the lightweight men's eight, the Hoya Lights made a bigger gain, improving from 12th to eighth this year, finishing fifth among U.S. colleges, close behind 2008 National Champions Cornell and ahead of Yale.

"The conditions were particularly challenging with a tail wind on one stretch of the course, a head wind in another and everything in between. The guys showed a grittiness that is great to see early in the year," Varsity Lightweight Coach Evans Liolin said, "Both of our coxswains made sound decisions in a race that requires good judgment on the fly. Facing talented opposition, five turns and unfamiliar currents, senior Kevin Francolini (Lincroft, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) and sophomore Dave Utlak (Canton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) did exceptional work preparing themselves for the weekend."

The Head of the Charles is a great celebration of rowing - it is the only race in the U.S. which sees collegiate crews from Divisions I, II and III share the water with Masters, National and Olympic teams from all over the world, along with the most promising high school athletes. "It is a unique opportunity to race in front of 250,000 people while benchmarking ourselves against some of the best lightweight boats out there," senior lightweight co-captain Tim Freeman (Portland, Ore./Jesuit) said.

"Overall, we put together solid, aggressive races," Freeman added. "As a team, we accomplished what we set out to do and are eager to improve upon our results this coming weekend at the Princeton Chase."