The Tartans ended their fall season strongly this past weekend at the Head of the Occoquan in Fairfax, Virginia. The grueling 6,000 meter course is marked by four major turns that, when taken well, can make the difference between placing ahead or behind of a competitor. The winding river is considered one of the most challenging courses in the country. In addition, the weather wildly ranged from windy at points to drizzling rain, making warming up difficult for rowers.

However, our adept coxswains and rowers navigated the course expertly to make their mark in the regatta. As womens' coxswain Gabbi Coloyan (CIT '12) put it, "The [Occoquan] course was definitely the most challenging course I've ever coxed, but the girls in my 8 and 4 were able to power through the turns. The girls in the 4 were especially able to crank on the power, and we were able to beat Pitt." The women made a strong showing, with the varsity womens' 4+ placing 10th of 31 boats, and the 8+ making aggressive times.

Among the other victories included the Varsity Mens' 4+, coxed by graduate student Bryan Cheung and rowed by juniors Sean Lubner, Justin Perry, Jonah Coste, and Edward Burns, to finish with a time of 18:50.0733, earning themselves 5th place out of 31 boats. Mens' Captain Justin Perry was optimistic about the race, noting "our fifth place finish was an improvement from last year, and a good way to end the season. Now we know who is still ahead of us, and that will be our motivation to train all winter."

For the novices, the Head of the Occoquan marked their first competitive race outside of scrimmages, and every exhausted novice rower managed to walk away from the weekend with smiles on their faces. The novice mens' 8 pushed strongly to pull far ahead of rivals University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne. The womens' 8s roughed out the race to finish with a respectable time of 23:52.5733. Dmitriy Yakubov (Architecture '13) said of his 8, "The race felt really good. We were in good shape and we held our own against the other crews. There is room for improvement and our time could be better, but at the end of the day, I believe everyone in that boat gave all they had to give, and that's what matters the most." Although the mens' 4+ earlier that day were marred by collisions, they clearly pulled it back together for their 8.

As always, team parents were in full force to deliver cupcakes ("slow" food) and fruits ("go" food), along with their support. As the race was held on Halloween, many race officials and team members showed their holiday spirit by bringing along wigs and costumes. The overall atmosphere was definitely competitive, but lighthearted as well - qualities that mark the most fun of regattas.

Although we close our fall race season with this race, the team will be having a scrimmage with Duquesne and UPitt next Saturday at Washington's Landing, right here in Pittsburgh on the North Shore. We hope you'll be able to come by before we head into our rigorous five-month winter training season.

See full race results here: http://bit.ly/1dS44L