BOSTON, Mass. - The Ithaca College men's rowing team traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta. The team traveled with only their first varsity lineup. Ithaca had an entry into the men's collegiate eight category based on last year's 19th place finish in race. The regatta provides an automatic bid for crews which place in the top half of each heat.  
 
The regatta takes place on the famous Charles River which separates Boston and Cambridge. The river is host to many renowned rowing programs such as Harvard, Boston University, MIT, and more throughout the year. The Head of the Charles or HOCR as it is referred to is considered the largest two day regatta in the world, with roughly 11,000 athletes rowing in over 1,900 boats in about 61 events. Teams travel from across the world to take part in this headline fall race. 
 
For the Bombers, and Head Coach Justin Stangel, the Charles' crew featured coxswain Miles Kenaston and rowers Gregg Seiz, Jake Lentz, Colin McCarthy, James Ross, Seth Freeman, Henry Grant, Wesley Hoglin, and Griffin Hunt. 
 
The regatta was head race style, meaning crews were launched in various increments with the goal being to pass crews that were ahead and hold off crews from behind. 
 
The Bombers finished 17th overall, improving on last year's 19th place finish. For IC, they edged out familiar rivals from recent seasons such as Bucknell, who finished two spots behind IC, as well as Marist and Hamilton, who finished 19th and 23rd, respectively. 
 
Ithaca maintained a nice lead over the crews surrounding them at the start, coming through the first timing point, Riverside, with a time of 3:24.67. The Bombers continued to make moves along the course, overtaking numerous boats along the way. 
 
Overall, the Bombers finished the course with a final time of 15:06.84, finishing ahead of Marietta by a margin of about six seconds. With their finish this year, the Bombers will receive an automatic bid into next year's regatta. 

REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JUSTIN STANGEL:
"The boat today performed well today after a little bit of an up and down week of training.  I was happy to see the consistency in their performance down the course and we were able to get a clean run with no steering issues.  At the end of the day, we moved up a few spots from last year and the group is hungry to put in the work to close the gap before spring racing kicks off."

IC will travel home to prepare for the season finale, Touchdown Regatta hosted by Cornell on the Cayuga Inlet next weekend, Saturday October 29. The entire squad is expected to compete with entries in a variety of categories.