It was a lively weekend for the Massachusetts men’s rowing team, as the varsity team raced three boats across Saturday and Sunday at the 54th Head of the Charles regatta in Boston. In addition, multiple alumni shells competed under the ”Aging Aggies Rowing Club” title. 

Coming off an impressive day of racing in Shelton, CT last weekend, the Aggies defended their home course at Saturday’s Hadley chase. Racing four boats (three eight’s and one four) in the frigid rain and winning the men’s collegiate eight event. It was also the first race of the year for the Aggies novice team.

The Aggies kicked off their fall racing campaign with the Head of the Housatonic in Shelton, Connecticut this past Saturday. Massachusetts looked to carry over momentum from last May’s strong showing at the ACRA National Championships (placing 7th, surpassing their previous best of 11th in the nation) proving that, even after graduating over ten seniors from last season, they are still one of the top dogs in the Northeast.

After a long and grueling season the Aggies brought their best down to Gainesville for the ACRA Championship Regatta. As mentioned previously, this would be a historically significant one with opportunities to see both the fastest V8 in decades, the first full novice eight in years, and a 2V8 looking for a third straight grand final appearance.

This past weekend, the Aggies traveled down to Philly for the 80th Dad Vail Regatta: a historic event for everyone. For the first time in many years UMass had a presence in one of the most storied and treasured rowing events in the world.

Close, but no cigar. At the New England Regional Championships, the UMass Men fought hard and long but ended up just 0.2 seconds away from a strong third place finish in the V8 grand final. The 2V8 also found themselves in the grand final, and just edged out WPI for a fifth place finish.

Another strong day of racing for the UMass men. With an slight headwind under 10mph, the V8, 2V8 and 3V8 battled it out against Boston College, Coast Guard, and WPI.