Men’s crew capped off its fall season on Sunday, racing on the final day of the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass. The 1v boat finished sixth out of 42 in the collegiate eights division with a time of 14:44.068, just under 20 seconds behind the winning boat from the College of the Holy Cross, while the 2v finished 26th with a time of 15:31.734.
Celebrating its 60th year, the largest annual regatta in the world brought together over 11,500 athletes from more than 850 clubs over the course of three days. “There’s no other event in the sport of rowing that has that same energy,” co-captain Myer Liebman ’26 told the Record.
Much of that energy came from the over 300,000 spectators cheering the boats for the duration of the 5k course, a crowd that included many familiar faces for the Ephs. “We had a bunch of alumni in town,” co-captain Asher Rabinowitz ’26 said. “A bunch of them raced in alumni boats on Saturday and stuck around town, [and] just cheered us on and supported us.”
The iconic three-mile Charles River course is infamously difficult to navigate, featuring numerous bridges and winding turns. “We had some specific practices where our coxswains were able to practice wide, long turns and kind of specific maneuvers that the Charles requires,” Rabinowitz said.
1v rower Jack Wagner ’27 reaffirmed the difficulty of the course, praising coxswain Carina Sun ’26 for guiding the boat through the race. “She did everything she was supposed to do and executed perfectly,” he said.
Despite the Ephs’ best efforts, some factors were beyond their control — most notably, an incident with the La Salle University boat under Eliot Bridge with about 800m to go. “It seems that [La Salle] may have lost their ability to turn their rudder, so they got stuck,” Wagner said.
As the Ephs rowed under Eliot Bridge, gearing up for their final sprint, they collided with the La Salle boat head-on. “They hit us because they were trying to get back on the course,” Wagner explained. “It’s a bummer. We were having a really great piece before that, and then that definitely kills your momentum.”
Even with the unfortunate finish, the team was able to take pride in their performance. “We’re really happy with the speed we showed,” Liebman said. “It’s motivation to keep training hard and makes us excited for racing in the spring.”
Throughout the fall season, the Ephs have kept their eyes and focus on the spring. “The fall isn’t our top priority,” Rabinowitz said. “It’s always fun to do well, but our main priority is to do well in the spring.”
Wagner echoed that sentiment, describing how Head Coach Marc Mandel has kept the team focused on building a strong base for spring racing. “We emphasized technique, drilling, making sure we’re rowing the stroke we want to row, rather than an emphasis on higher [stroke] rating or pure endurance,” he said.
The Ephs have a lot to look forward to given the promise they demonstrated this fall, especially because half of the 2v rowers were first-years. “It’s a huge thing to come to your first year of college and get right into a very fast boat and race in the Charles,” Wagner said. “I’m just super proud of them for how they race and super excited for what a new class of freshmen brings to the table.”
Rabinowitz echoed Wagner’s excitement. “I think this fall showed much better depth than we’ve had in years,” he said. “But as we learned yesterday, the rest of the league also shows some really good depth. So it’s going to be a battle for sure.”
As the fall season comes to an end, the Ephs enter the winter with the opportunity to work off of a very strong foundation and with a clear goal in mind. “The goal for the winter is to build a really solid base fitness-wise,” Liebman said. “We’ll spend a lot of time on the ergs and cross training … but the long-term goal is to win our championship races in the spring.”
