BOSTON – On a bright October day with clear water, the Yale Lightweights raced five shells for the 55th Head of the Charles Regatta. With three entries in the lightweight eight and two in the lightweight four, the Elis brought nearly the full squad up to Boston for the weekend. 

Starting off the day with pleasant conditions, the lightweight four event was up first. The Yale A lightweight four finished 7th with a time of 16:24.6. The Yale B lightweight four finished 11th with a time of 16:59.8. 

Continuing the afternoon, the lightweight eight was up next. Always hotly contested, this year's race didn't disappoint. As the first two starting crews did battle at the head of the race, Yale in turn was chased by Navy and Penn.  Penn pushed into Navy, and Navy closed on Yale, but the Bulldogs refused to let either of them through with a terrific race to the end. The Yale A lightweight eight finished 6th in 14:22.5. The other 'race-within-the-race' was between Yale A and Yale B, who finished seventh, only 2.9 seconds behind Yale A. 

"We took a unusually large squad up to Boston", said Andy Card, Y150 Alumni Head Coach of Lightweight Crew. "Our alumni made that possible, and our guys took on the challenge of doing well over such a broad field. The squad should be proud of the fight they put in today throughout the course. Our fours battled all the way, and the three eights had some fun tough races."

The Yale C lightweight eight held their boating, finishing 14th ahead of MIT, Mercyhurst, and Temple's A boats with a time of 14:53.6. 

"I thought that all our guys rowed hard and with spirit", said Card, "A good effort for October. Now it's time to put the HOCR app down and get on with it."

The lightweights will now begin to shift into the next phase of their training as the fall season comes to a close and winter training begins. 

Full results can be found here.