2011 Head of the Hooch
College of Charleston traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee for this years rendition of Head of the Hooch. Let’s preface the following results with this: we’ve had a rough season. We got kicked out of the parking lot, we Built a dock for our boats (it’s like something right out of Waterworld), our men’s Captain quit, everything breakable broke, and there are soooo many cockroaches in my new apartment.
The Men’s Varsity put out a Light 4+, a Club 4+, a Champ 8+, and a Champ 1X (Hays). The lights (Berger, Tipling, Candea, Perrin, & Dunlap) had a rough race and just never got going. The cox box gave out on the way up, bow seat’s seat had one of it’s wheels break, and the boat just never got it together. The lights have vowed to redeem themselves at next weeks’ Head of the South. The Club 4+ (Rodriquez, Hays, Farkas, Richards, & Hill) had a good row and were able to pass a few boats. They placed 23rd out of 38. The Champ 8+ (Berger, Tipling, Rodriquez, Hays, Farkas, Richards, Candea, Perrin, & Witkowski) finished in a time of 17:41… Hank Hays bested his previous time at the regatta by about forty seconds.
The Women’s Varsity finished 13th out of 22 in the Club 8+ and 27th out of 32 in the Club 4+ (Weber, Haney, Kilgore, Criddle, & Hill). They’re looking forwards to a better race this weekend and will be featuring a Women’s Light 4+.
Charleston Community made it’s debut at the regatta. They rowed a Masters Women’s Four (Landrith, Stank0, ?, McDonald, & Hill). Good job ladies!
The novice got their oars wet for the first time at the regatta. The Men’s Four (Jost, Rein, Irby, Bailey) placed 16th out of 28 with a line-up that had only rowed two or three times before. The Women’s Four and Women’s Eight, again having only rowed together a few times, became acquainted with the sport of rowing. Enough said.
As usual, Warren Williams descended from the mountains with only edelweiss, anger, and his yellow shell. Mr. Williams photographed every race of the weekend, including his own. In his race, he placed third. The only reason he didn’t win is because halfway through the race, he stopped for a picnic. A twenty minute picnic.
Despite some unsatisfactory results, the Crew looks to redeem themselves this coming weekend at the Head of the South in Augusta.
On a more somber note, former coxswain Allyson Plowden, class of 2000, passed away last Thursday. In memorial, the Men’s Varsity 8+ will be competing in red this weekend to commemorate what she gave to this team. If you knew her, it would be nice if you commented below with memories, farewells, or so on. Pictures would be great too.