First Eight Highlights Strong Showing for Aggies at the 25th Annual Housatonic

On Saturday, UMass traveled to Shelton, Connecticut to compete at the Head of the Housatonic after a four week break in racing. The Aggies competed with two collegiate eights and a collegiate four against schools from across New England and the New York metro area. Temperatures sat in the mid-50’s throughout the day, while there was an overcast early in the day that dissipated as racing continued throughout the afternoon. However, wind was present throughout the day, blowing against the course at a consistent 10 mph as well as gusts of over 20 mph.

In the Men’s Collegiate eight event, UMass’ varsity eight secured a first-place victory and paced the field by over twenty seconds in a time of 13:49.9. Meanwhile, the second eight had the fastest 2V time of the event, with a 14:41.7 mark which was good for sixth-place overall. Finishing off the day was the collegiate 4+ who finished 7th out of 11 crews with a 16:42.2 in a well-executed race.

Next weekend, the varsity eight will race at the 55th Head of the Charles regatta in Boston. The crew will be competing in the Collegiate 8+ event on Sunday at 2:32 in the afternoon. In addition, there will be a christening for the Jack Frackleton ’81 on Saturday at 12:30 P.M. at American Legion Post #442 in Cambridge.

More details about the shell dedication and racing will follow later this week.