October 30, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT’s men’s heavyweight crew has launched the 2008-09 campaign with strong performances in three October regattas. Highlighted by a crushing victory and a pair of solid results against elite competition, the Engineers are stirring up excitement along the Charles River.

At the New Hampshire Championships on October 11 in Hooksett, the Engineers repeated their dominant performance from 2007, taking first and second in the open eights race, and first and second in the open fours.

The next weekend at the 44th annual Head of the Charles Regatta, MIT delivered an encouraging performance at the world’s largest two-day rowing race. The premier event of the regatta is the championship eight, which features elite national and international crews, as well as the nation’s top college crews. MIT finished 16th of 37 in this event, beating six of its league rivals from the EARC.

At the Princeton Chase the following weekend, the Tech heavies gave further evidence of their improvement over the past three years. The Chase is a smaller race than the Head of the Charles, but still features a fast field of college crews from the East and Midwest. Two years ago, the Engineers finished 29th at the Chase; last year they finished 17th. This year, MIT moved up eight more places to finish ninth overall and best five EARC varsity crews. The Cardinal and Gray’s heavyweight freshmen also made a statement about the program’s future, finishing sixth in the freshmen race.

The Engineers will finish their fall season at the Foot of the Charles on November 22.

Tech’s varsity lineup for the Princeton Chase was: (cox) Steven Young, (stroke) Luke Urban, (7) Rane Nolan, (6) Tom Larsen, (5) James Stenard, (4) Peter Lamb, (3) Alessandro Chiesa, (2) David Jenicek, (bow) Lucas Goodman.