Exeter girls win Junior 8+ at Henley Women’s Regatta
The girls first boat traveled to Henley-on-Thames, England this weekend to compete in the Junior 8+ event of the prestigious Henley Women’s Regatta. Established in 1988 after growing frustration at the lack of women’s events at the Henley Royal Regatta, the Henley Women’s Regatta races the first 1500 meters of the same stretch of the River Thames as the Henley Royal Regatta. All races are “dual” races with only two crews competing at a time, but the bracket is single-elimination with no repechage races or petite finals. The crew of the eight included: coxswain Jessica Michaels ’14, stroke Mimi Reichenbach ’12, 7 Jenny DiPietro ’14, 6 Kerrick Edwards ’14, 5 Catherine Closmore ’12, 4 Forrest Barker ’13, 3 Emily Ball ’13, 2 Cassie Corey ’12, bow Cory Johnson ’13, spare Millie Dethy ’14.
Exeter received a favorable seed in the Junior 8+ event, and did not race until the semifinals against Headington School of Oxford (who had already raced twice). In this semifinal, Exeter rowed the 1500 meter course in 5 minutes and 50 seconds, beating Headington by two lengths (time margins are not reported at Henley). The weather was clearly a factor in this race, as the girls first boat had rowed the same distance at the NEIRA regatta in 5 minutes and 6 seconds less than a month earlier.
Video of the Phillips Exeter vs. Mount St. Joseph final:
Video of the Phillips Exeter vs. Mount St. Joseph final:
In the final, Exeter raced against Mount St. Joseph Academy of Flourtown, Pennsylvania. Mount St. Joseph were favored going into the final, having won at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. In a photo finish, Exeter triumphed by a mere two feet–equivalent to less than one quarter second.
For their victory, Exeter won the Peabody Cup and received memberships into the Vitrix Henley Women’s Regatta Winners’ Club.
John Reichenbach P’12, who has uploaded nearly 4,000 photos to the Exeter Crew Flickr pool in the last three years, traveled with the team and took many excellent photos, including those featured above. If you have photos you want to share, sign up for a free Flickr account and add the photos to the Exeter Crew photo pool according to the instructions. The tag for this event is “2012hwr“.
