Sechser, Koszyk Win Champ Singles, USRowing Boats Win Champ Eights at 2023 Head of the Charles

U.S. National Team members Michelle Sechser and Sorin Koszyk won the championship single sculls races on Saturday, while USRowing won both the women's and men's championship eights races on Sunday at the 2023 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Mass.

Over 2,500 crews from nearly 800 clubs raced at the famed regatta on the Charles River.

In Saturday's championship singles races, Sechser, the Cambridge Boat Club sculler who won silver in the lightweight women's double sculls in September at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, covered the course in an 18:43.090 to finish just over four seconds ahead of Hawkes Bay Rowing Club's Emma Twigg, the reigning Olympic single sculls champion from New Zealand. Cambridge Boat Club's Emily Kallfelz, the defending Charles' champion who raced in the U.S. women's quadruple sculls at the 2023 World Championships, placed third.

In the men's event, Koszyk, who represented California Rowing Club, bested Hawkes Bay Rowing Club's Thomas Mackintosh by nearly 23 seconds to record the victory. Koszyk, who raced in the men's double sculls at the 2023 World Championships, finished the course in a 16:57.782, while Mackintosh, crossed the finish line in a 17:20.516. New York Athletic Club's Eliot Putnam finished third. Putnam represented the U.S. in the men's single sculls in Belgrade.

Saturday's women's championship double sculls race saw Whitemarsh Boat Club's Sophia Luwis and Audrey Boersen take the victory in a 18:05.471. Luwis won bronze in Belgrade in the lightweight women's single sculls and was named USRowing's 2023 Carie Graves Female Athlete of the Year. Luwis and Boersen finished over one minute ahead of the West End Rowing Club from New Zealand in Boston.

The Spanish crew of Jaime Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez won the men's elite pair in a 16:20.382, with the USRowing crew of Nick Mead and Alex Karwoski finishing 10 seconds behind in second position. Mead won silver in the men's four at the 2023 World Championships and was named USRowing's 2023 Male Athlete of the Year. Karwoski is a 10-time national team member and two-time Olympian. Evan Olson and Samuel Halbert placed third. Olson raced in the men's pair in Belgrade, finishing fifth.

The Australian crew of Annabelle McIntyre and Jessica Morrison, who won silver in the pair in Serbia, won the women's elite pair with a time of 17:37.717 followed by the USRowing crew of Kelsey Reelick and Molly Bruggeman with a time of 18:06.427. Reelick and Bruggeman competed in the four at the 2023 World Championships.

In the women's championship four, McIntyre and Morrison joined forces with Meghan Musnicki and Alie Rusher, the U.S. women's pair who placed sixth at the world championships this past year, to win the race in a 17:17.577. The boat was coxed by Caroline Ricksen.

In Sunday's men's championship eight, the USRowing crew of Henry Hollingsworth, Clark Dean, Oliver Bub, Peter Chatain, Chris Carlson, Mead, Karwoski, Pieter Quinton, and coxswain Jimmy Catalano defeated Harvard University by just under five seconds to win the title. The URowing crew finished with a time of 14:21.484.

In the women's championship eight, the USRowing A boat of Charlotte Buck, Mary Mazzio-Manson, Regina Salmons, Alina Hagstrom, Brooke Mooney, Jessica Thoennes, Margaret Hedeman, Emily Froehlich, and coxswain Cristina Castagna won the race by 0.2 seconds over USRowing's C entry of Kaitlyn Kynast, Bruggeman, Madeleine Wanamaker, Reelick, Kaitlin Knifton, Claire Collins, Azja Czajkowski, Allyson Baker, and coxswain Rachel Rane. The winning boat, which won silver at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, covered the course in a 16:11.313.

USRowing's PR3 mixed four with coxswain of Alex Flynn, Skylar Dahl, Saige Harper, Ben Washburne, and coxswain Emelie Eldracher clocked a 17:33.931 to win the mixed para PR3 four with coxswain, while Todd Vogt and Carey Connell, representing Portland Boat Club, won gold in the Para inclusion double sculls. The U.S. PR3 four with coxswain won silver at the 2023 World Championships, while Vogt won silver in the PR3 mixed double sculls with Gemma Wollenschlaeger in Belgrade.

For complete results and more information on the Head of the Charles Regatta, click here.

USRowing would like to thank Filippi Lido, the Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Senior, Under 23, and Para Rowing National Teams. Under the agreement, Filippi is providing USRowing a fleet of boats for international competitions including the World Rowing Cup regattas, World Rowing Under 23 Championships, World Rowing Championships, Olympic Games, and Paralympic Games, as well as a domestic training fleet for the USRowing Training Center.