WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's men's rowing team had an impressive showing at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on Saturday, winning the Freshman/Novice race while placing second in the championship pairs event.
 
The freshman/novice 8+ defeated 23 other boats with a time of 11:45, topping local rival Navy by nearly eight seconds.
 
"This was a special race to win for these guys, it was their first race as Hoyas," Head Coach Luke Agnini said. "Usually in head races, they start boats based on results from the year prior. Since we did not race in this event last year, we had to start dead last in the back of the pack. That can mean a lot of distractions on the course and also not the cleanest racing, but it also gave our guys the chance to pass a half dozen boats on their way to the win and I am sure that gave them lots of juice. This boat has two novices in it and today's conditions were very challenging. I am proud of the collective effort and the spirit of this group. This was freshman rowing at its best - it wasn't very pretty, but they went hard and they went together, which is the foundation of college rowing. More importantly though, they are finally learning to row the style of stroke we want to row here and applied that today. Although they only rowed at 30 spm, it was a long rhythm and it cut right through the massive headwind they were battling. There are some guys in this boat that could be immediate difference makers on the varsity team this year and all of them can be varsity caliber oarsmen in their time at Georgetown. And I give a special nod to coxswain Erin Farrell for doing a tremendous job on the course today. She steered a near perfect course and kept the crew sharp and together through a very stiff headwind."
 
Also impressive was the championship pairs, with Andrew Howard and Andrew Tokarski finishing second with a time of 14:14 behind Vesper Boat Club.
 
"Our men's pair unfortunately ran into some bad luck and knocked their skeg almost all the way off the boat during the warm up when they ran into debris on the river," Agnini said. "They were unaware of the damage at the time, but it resulted in them not being able to steer straight for the entire 4200 meters down the course, let alone be able to apply full pressure during a race. I would imagine their inability to steer slowed them down by at least a minute, especially considering they ran into the shore after the first 20 strokes. I am very confident they would have won the race handily if they had a clean run, but that is racing and a good experience to take with them moving forward. The most important takeaway is the fantastic week of preparation those two had leading up to the race. Obviously, the goal is for the preparation to lead to the desired goal on race day, but everything that happened to them today was out of their control. What was in control was their attitude and it was fantastic. Those guys were flying down the river all week and had a lot of speed. I have no doubt they will both be a staple of the varsity 8 this year."