The Walter Johnson Crew Club, a high school student rowing club in Bethesda Maryland
On October 19th, two WJ Crew boats rowed at the 50th Anniversary Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. The HOCR attracts crews from across the country and around the world, and is considered one of the most prestigious rowing events of the year. WJ Crew’s Varsity Boy’s four and Varsity Girl’s four competed against over 80 other youth crews and showed extreme pose and grit on the race course.
The Boys Varsity 4+ consisting of coxswain Annika La Vina (Jr), Sam Lupo (Sr), Zach Hicks (Jr), John Bruno (Sr) and Philip Whitehouse (Jr) finished 40th out of 85 earning themselves an automatic bid for next year’s HOCR. Having started in 82nd place they ended 40th of 85 crews, with a time of 18:49.97, beating local DC high schools Wilson, DeMatha and Whitman.
The Girls Varsity 4+ consisting of Coxswain Emma Bassin (Sr), Katie Porter (Sr) Erin Biesecker (Sr) Meredith Crenca (Sr) and Alexa Cardoni (Sr) fought a steady headwind and managed to beat out local high schools BCC and Wilson and finished 63 out of 84 boats.
Congratulations to both boats for performing so well on such a large stage!
See the Head of the Charles website here and here for the complete official results.
Photographs by Kjirsti Lupo. For more photos from this event, see Kjirsti’s Flickr page.