Georgia Kaufman

Opinion Editor

After the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR) occurred the weekend of Oct. 21 in Cambridge, MA, Los Gatos Rowing Club (LGRC) members came home with three medals, marking the beginning of a great season. All boats that the club brought to Boston ended up qualifying for another entry in the 2023 HOCR.

The Men’s Youth 4x+, 4+, and Women’s Youth 4x+ all took home hardware. Nine of the twelve athletes were Los Gatos High School students. These students included seniors Miles Kramer, Ian Moss, Alberto Lasso, Hannah Jenkins, and Uma Kausik, along with juniors Taj Chunawala, Kyle Brown, Diego Lasso, and Lucie Boillet. 

The Men’s Youth coxed quad (4x+) — consisting of Kramer, Moss, and A. Lasso — received first place in their category. The coxed quad beat their placement last year, bumping up from third place to first. Technically the boat won on a technicality; the opposing winners had a graduated senior taking a gap year, which is against regatta policy. 

The Men’s Youth coxed four (4+) — including Chunawala, Brown, and D. Lasso — placed fourth overall. This is a two-spot-seeding triumph to their sixth place overall finish last year (first place as a U17 boat), but that lineup did not include any of the three Los Gatos High School students; it seems that LGRC Varsity Men have found their kings this time around.

The Women’s Youth coxed quad (4x+) — which included Jenkins, Kausik, and Boillet — placed fifth overall. This is a four-spot-seeding difference from last year, as well as the first time the LGRC Varsity Women’s team medalled at HOCR.
The other two boats that LGRC brought to HOCR, both the Men’s and Women’s Youth 8+, faced obstacles during the last thousand meters of their races. Ironically, both eights faced issues with other boats yielding underneath the same bridge in the last thousand-meter stretch of the regatta. LGHS students included in these eights are seniors Georgia Kaufman, Julia Kiplinger, Dylan Rosenblum, Evan Foster, and Ethan Kim, juniors Annika Sivi, Sarah Drabkin, Finley Slater, and Dillon Yoo, and sophomore Harriet Cheetham — the only sophomore in attendance. 

Both the Men’s and Women’s Varsity teams only have one more head race left in the fall, and then they will gear up for the busy Spring season they have ahead of them. Keep up with all LGRC teams on their respective Instagram accounts: @losgatosrowingclub, @lgrcvarsitymen, and @lgrcvarsitywomen.