Since they’d flown in for the weekend, Uncle Sam’s nieces figured they might as well double up. So Knifton and fellow Texas grad Etta Carpender helped power the Longhorn Legends entry to victory in Saturday’s alumnae race where Mia Levy rowed for Yale. And Azja Czajkowski and Teal Cohen, two of Knifton’s seatmates from the Shanghai four, raced in the championship single.
“After a pretty intense and stressful last few months, the Head Of The Charles is such a celebration of rowing,” said Knifton. “It’s so great to see part of that, seeing people you haven’t seen in a while, meeting so many new rowers. All sharing the same excitement about the sport.”
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Cambridge University retained its men’s eight crown, which no defender other than US Rowing had managed since Vesper, the fabled Philadelphia club, did it in 1993. But instead of the Americans, the world bronze medalists who were out of contention midway along the 3-mile upstream course and finished sixth, the Light Blues’ main challenger turned out to be Washington, the five-time Head victor and reigning collegiate champions who finished just a second and a half behind.
The Cantabrigians, who were first off the line, could see that they had clear water over Harvard, which started second. So they just kept pushing and relied on Sammy Houdaigui, who coxed Dartmouth here last year, to steer a tight course, and posted a winning time of 13:41.692.
Last year’s triumph set the stage for Cambridge’s swamping of Oxford in The Boat Race on the Thames.
“That’s what it’s about,” said stroke Frederik Breuer. “To win something early in the season, which we did. Now it’s back to the training. What really matters is the Boat Race, of course, so the focus is on that now.”
If there were a men’s points title, Washington likely would have claimed it. Its varsity and an alumni boat stocked with global medalists finished second and fourth with Harvard between. The Huskies also won the championship four.
College football has the Heisman Trophy. Now men’s collegiate rowing, the definition of a team sport, has the ‘Oarsman Award’ honoring the most outstanding athlete from schools competing at the IRA national championships.
“We wanted it to be similar to what the Heisman is,” said Washington coach Michael Callahan. “In rowing there is a contradiction. You always want to be a team player but sometimes we don’t celebrate the individual.”
Coaches nominated candidates based on the impact they had both on their team and its season. A committee of national team competitors, coaches, and significant members of the rowing community selected the honorees.
The recipients were: Washington’s Logan Ullrich, the Olympic medalist from New Zealand whose seatmates won the Div. 1 crown. Trinity’s Jack Carr from the unbeaten Div. 3 titlists. And Brahm Erdmann from the Harvard lightweights who won both the IRA title and the Temple Cup at Henley.
Having crossed off the world lightweight singles crown from her to-do list, Michelle Sechser will be bidding again to make the US openweight team for next year’s world regatta and ultimately the 2028 Games. Sechser, the two-time Head champion who finished a close second to Paris gold medalist Karolien Florijn on Saturday, rowed with Molly Reckford in the lightweight double at the last two Games.
Now that the lightweight events are off the Olympic menu, her options are to try to make an openweight sculling boat or take a shot at the beach sprints, the new Olympic event.
“I enjoy rowing in the waves and learning how to move so differently through the swell and the tide,” said Sechser, a California native who lives in Portsmouth, N.H. ‘There’s some great ocean racing up there.”
New Zealand’s Finn Hamill, who retained his men’s singles title on Saturday, has a double opportunity for the Los Angeles Games. He could race in the traditional rowing competition either in the single or the double, and also in the beach sprint event.
“I would love to try and do both,” he said. “It is doable in terms of the scheduling. That’s sort of my goal but it’s not completely up to me. I’d have to obviously qualify in both.”
Hamill raced with Ben Mason in the double at last month’s world regatta and is reigning global champion in coastal rowing.
“Just take it year by year,” he said.
John Powers can be reached at john.powers@globe.com.
