Oct. 22, 2000

BOSTON, Mass.-The Carolina rowing team didn't get the results it had hoped for Sunday at the Head of the Charles Regatta, but that didn't make the day a loss for the Tar Heels. "This was a hard day for us, no question, but we'd rather put ourselves up against the fastest boats out there and maybe not fare quite as well," UNC coach Joel Furtek said. "This was definitely worth the effort."

Racing on the Charles River in the fall's flagship regatta, UNC's varsity eight finished 34th of 57 boats in a time of 18:05.56. That boat, coxswained by senior Robin Yamakawa, contained three rowers who were injured or ailing. Two (Dana Peirce, with broken fingers, and Laura Fogt, with a sprained shoulder) were still questionable to race when the team left Chapel Hill on Friday. "For a beat-up crew, I think we did all right," Furtek said. "We started way back and had to work our way up through the crowd. The finish was not what we had hoped, but we can look on the bright side and see that our finish was just five seconds off of 28th place. It was a very tight group in there."

The UNC varsity four finished 19th of the 21 boats to complete the course, with a time of 20:35.96. Both fields included collegiate and international crews of varying levels. In the eight, the Tar Heels finished two spots ahead of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team boat.

Another boat with UNC ties-the Chapel Hill Rowing Club eight-finished 54th in that field. Racing in that boat were Tar Heel assistants Jody Wilhelm and Jackie Breitenstein, as well as UNC alums Rachel Kolbinsky and Ann Crawford.

Carolina returns to competition on Nov. 4 at the Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta in Gainesville, Ga. There, as well as the following weekend at the Rivanna Romp in Charlottesville, Va., UNC will get another look at many of the crews that competed in Boston on Sunday.

"Today's racing was really our first major test of the fall," Furtek said. "We have room to grow and an effort of which we can be proud."

Complete regatta results are available at www.hocr.org