Club Sports: Pitt Crew to compete in Boston

embers of Pitt Crew will travel to Boston on Saturday to compete in largest two-day rowing event… Members of Pitt Crew will travel to Boston on Saturday to compete in largest two-day rowing event in the world.

After performing well at the Annual Head of Ohio Regatta three weekends ago, Pitt Crew will look to build on that succcess when it sends four boats to the invitation-only competition known as the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Club president Lars Johnson, a senior, said the Head of the Charles is the most important event of the fall season for Pitt rowers.

The Head of the Charles website said that “more than 8,000 athletes from around the world compete in 55 different race events.” In 1997, the Regatta expanded to a two-day event that more than 300,000 people arrive to watch each year.

The Charles gives the team the opportunity to prove its worth against top college rowing programs that recruit for crew, Johnson said.

Pitt Crew’s status as a club sport prevents it from recruiting student-athletes, and traditionally, a large number of the rowers don’t come to Pitt with rowing experience.

Voystock said that other teams often write off Pitt Crew because of its status as a club sport. But the program has shown time and again that it can compete with and even beat schools that are able to recruit rowers.

Because Pitt Crew is a club program, it chooses which regattas — or series of boat races — it competes in unless the regatta is invitation only. Because of this setup, there are hardly ever the same schools competing at each regatta.

Boats are single sex and compete separately in a variety of divisions depending on the regatta.

Two men’s varsity boats got invited to Boston: one club boat and one collegiate. On the women’s side, one lightweight and one collegiate boat — both varsity — were invited.

Races designated as collegiate restrict entry to college rowing programs. While races designated as club or open do not have any entry restrictions, lightweight races require that each member of a boat weigh less than 160 pounds for men and 130 for women. Fall crew races are 6,000 meters long and have staggered starts.

Pitt Crew consists of two main groups: varsity and novice. Varsity consists of students who have had more than a year of rowing experience.

Novice rowers have a year or less of rowing experience. They train and row separately from the varsity group.

Varsity consists of 31 men and women, 26 of whom had no prior rowing experience before coming to Pitt. The novice club has 30 men and women, 27 of whom had no prior rowing experience, bringing the total number to 53 novices out of 61 crew members.

Johnson, who had no experience with crew before coming to Pitt, sees the numbers as a source of pride.

“I definitely think it’s a big point of pride for us,” he said. “We can take literally nothing, no experience, and foster competitive rowers.”

Andrew Voystock, the club’s vice president, who also came to Pitt with no rowing experience, echoed Johnson’s sentiment, saying that he is proud that the club develops its athletes.

Voystock, a junior, said that the young Pitt rowers are committed to their development.

“We keep getting these novice classes that are really dedicated and are working really hard and end up working up to the standards of being a varsity who rows against [Division I] athletes and can beat them,” Voystock said.

Freshmen who are experienced in the sport before arriving on campus can choose whether they want to row with varsity or novice rowers.

Johnson and Voystock will row on the club four boat, led by Sam Nardone in the stroke seat — the first person rowing that sets the pace for the others — that will return to Boston after having missed out on automatic qualification by narrow margins last year. A four boat seats four people.

Pitt finished 31 out of 60 boats in the club four race in last year’s Head of the Charles Regatta with a time of 19:16.52. Only the top half of finishers received an automatic bid to this year’s competition.

The boat didn’t lose any rowers to graduation and found itself on the lucky end of a lottery that gave it a place in this year’s Head of the Charles, setting the stage for a chance at redemption.

After losing two rowers to graduation, the collegiate four boat — led by Peter Alter — began this year by finishing second in one of the men’s open four races at the Head of the Ohio with a time of 17:07.66. This boat competed in the collegiate four race in Boston last year, coming in 12th with a time of 18:37.76.

Despite losing a rower from last year’s squad, which placed fifth at Head of the Charles, the women’s lightweight boat has continued its streak of success.

This year’s squad won the lightweight women four race at the Head of the Ohio with a time of 17:57.00. Cara Massarelli moved to the stroke seat to fill the spot left by the graduated rower.

Now the lightweight boat will look to once again excel in Boston and improve on last year’s time of 18:51.93.

Women’s collegiate four boat came in 15th out of 30 boats last year at Head of the Charles with a time of 22:00.91.

Junior Mariah Blake sits in the stroke seat this year as they look to beat last year’s 15th place finish. At the Head of the Ohio, the boat placed fifth in the women open four race with a finish of 18:25.01.

Blake believes the team can improve on last year’s finish. In last year’s Head of the Charles, the boat was going around a turn and got “t-boned” by another, causing it to go off course.

Blake had no prior crew experience before she came to Pitt. In fact, she “didn’t even know what a crew team was.” She learned about crew during the Activities Fair her freshman year. She saw people walking around with oars and thought it would be a fun activity to try.

“We have people who join the team as juniors and seniors just for their novice years and have a blast,” Blake said.