Boston, Mass. - October 20, 2019 - Racing at the Head of the Charles Regatta® for the first time since 2017 on Sunday, the Mount Holyoke College rowing team had an impressive showing in their return to Boston, as the Lyons' varsity eight took 14th overall out of the 27 boats in the race, consisting of competition from both Division III and Division II institutions.

The Head of the Charles Regatta®, which began in 1965, takes place on the historic Charles River in Boston, Mass., and features close to 70 races over the course of the weekend. The Lyons' 14th-place finish marks the highest finish for the Mount Holyoke College rowing program at the Head of the Charles Regatta® since the fall of 2011 when they finished 13th overall. 

"We're really excited about today's race," said senior Elizabeth Hazen (Brookline, Mass.). "We've been building toward this for a long time. There's been a lot of work on the ergs and pushing each other daily for the last four years and it's nice to see that start to pay off."

Led by the coxswain Jaya Nagarajan-Swenson (Berkeley, Calif.), the Lyons' boat consisted of Piper Kilgore (Deerfield, N.H.), Hannah LeBlanc (Portland, Ore.), Jocelyn Greer (Glen Rock, N.J.), Johanna Van Fleet (Bow, N.H.), Xena Ault (Forest Park, Ill.), Simran Kaur (Hanover, N.H.), Hazen and Casey Roepke (Burlingame, Calif.). 

Launching out of bow 26 in the Women's Collegiate Eights, it took Mount Holyoke College 3:57.209 to get to the Riverside Boat House, which was the 10th fastest in the race. The Lyons then hit the Weld Boat House at 9:36.552, just behind the Bates College boat. After clearing the CBC Boat House at 14:26.048, the Lyons cruised to the finish line in 17:27.674. 

"We had a lot of traffic to navigate toward the end of the race which is always the challenge of starting with a high bow number in Boston," commented head Mount Holyoke College rowing coach Seth Hussey. "It was a solid effort and we've got a lot of work to do to keep the momentum building toward spring."

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