Head of the Charles Preview

On October 20-21, 98 Riverside athletes will compete across 22 events at the 2018 Head of the Charles Regatta. Notable appearances include:

Catherine Widgery will race in the Women’s Veteran I/II Single. Widgery will be competing in the Women’s G Eight and Women’s G Single at Masters Worlds in Sarasota, FL September 27-30. (Update: She won!)

J. McGaffigan will be returning in the Men’s Grand Masters Single (3rd Place 2017).

The Men’s and Women’s Masters Doubles each have two repeat entries from 2017, with the Wolf-Morelli (1st Plase 2017) and Kiester-Belakovskiy (5th Place 2017) doubles on the men’s side and the Lanfer-White (2nd Place 2017) and Belakovskiy-Vandersteel (3rd Place 2017) doubles on the women’s side.

The Men’s Sweeps Team will field two entries each in the Club Four (1st and 15th Place 2017) and Club 8 (3rd Place 2017 (1st in Club)) events.

Jillian and Hillary

In the Women’s Championship Double, the crew of Zieff and Sager will return after placing 3rd in the 2017 regatta.

In the Men’s Lightweight Single, S. Haussmann will return (3rd Place 2017).

In the Women’s Lightweight Single, L. Ayers will return (5th Place 2017).

Riverside Athletes Represent The US At Worlds: Results

On September 9-16, five current members of the Riverside High Performance Group competed at the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

• Kevin Meador raced in the Open Men’s Single, placing 2nd in the D Final.

• The US Lightweight Women’s Pair was comprised of Riverside athletes Jillian Zieff and Jen Sager, coached by Andrew Hashway and placed 2nd in the A Final.

• Hillary Saeger raced in the Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls and placed 4th in the A Final.

• Sam Hausmann raced in the Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls and placed 4th in the B Final.

Five High Performance Group Alumni also competed.

• Emily Huelskamp, Elizabeth Sonshine, and Mo McAuliffe accounted for three of the members of the Open Women’s Quadruple Sculls crew and placed 6th in the A Final.

• Peter Schmidt raced in the Lightweight Men’s Double and came in 1st in the E Final.

• David Smith raced in the Lightweight Men’s Pair and came in 3rd in the A Final.

Riverside sculler Catherine Widgery wins her race at Masters Worlds!

Catherine Widgery

Riverside sculler Catherine Widgery competed at Masters Worlds in Sarasota, FL in the Women’s G-Single event. On Thursday, September 27, Widgery raced in the finals and won her race by open water with a time of 4:32.397. Congratulations Catherine!

Catherine will be racing at Head of the Charles Regatta on October 20 in the Women’s Veteran I/II and Senior Veteran I/II Singles.

All the medals!

Catherine Widgery

RBC Sculler Catherine Widgery had a fantastic week out in California at US Masters Nationals. She medaled in all five of her events.

“I was proud to be there representing Riverside,” she says. “So many people who spotted the famous striped jersey came up to talk to me about what a great club Riverside is, and how they loved being a member or launching from there.”

Widgery took 3rd in the women’s open F double; 2nd in the mixed G-K quad; and won the open F quad and women’s open G single with a time of 4:49:194.

She is excited to continue her training for Masters Worlds in September, and hopes to become the fastest female rower in the world aged 65+.

Riverside Boat Club Sends Five Athletes to the World Championship

Written by: Annalise Routenberg

Kevin Meador

Five Riverside athletes will compete on two weeks at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Jillian Zieff and Jen Sager will race a lightweight women’s pair; Kevin Meador will represent the United States for the men’s single; and Hillary Saeger and Sam Hausmann will race in the women’s and men’s lightweight quads. All five athletes qualified for their spot on the national team 2018 roster at the U.S. Senior and Para Trials II in early August.

Jillian Zieff in stroke and Jen Sager in bow.

Sager and Zieff have been best friend and training partners for six years, since they first started rowing together at Trinity College. That relationship continued through last year’s World Championship, where they raced for Team U.S.A in the lightweight women’s quad.

This year, they won their qualifying final with a time of 7:28.11, well ahead of Vesper’s second place 7:36.75

They say this year’s win is a culmination of years of hard work.

“It’s been truly inspiring to be supported and pushed by the entire boathouse,” says Zieff. “It’s been giving us confidence and I think it shows in our performance at Trials.”

Keavin Meador took an unconventional route to racing the men’s single. Before winning his event to qualify for World’s, Meador raced in the fall of 2017 with the men’s sweeps team and won the club 8+ event at the Head of the Charles. Meador only began full-time training for single’s events this past year.

Following the National Selection Regatta and an injury that took him off the water for six weeks, Meador returned to the single two weeks out from Trials. Despite the fact that this was only his second sprint-race in a single, he won his time trial, his heat and came in second place in the semi-final.

Meador then won his final to qualify for Worlds at 7:02.59, more than a full second ahead of Malta Boat Club in second, and five seconds ahead of Vesper in third.

“I am very excited for this opportunity to race internationally,” he says. “I hope to do every possible thing in my power to make Riverside proud.”

Hillary Saegaer

In the men’s and women’s lightweight quads, Sam Hausmann and Hillary Saegaer raced composite entries at Trials with fellow lightweight national team hopefuls. Saeger has been training in a quad here in Cambridge for what will be her seventh World Championship appearance; she has already medaled three times. Hausmann has been training for his event in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Both quads were uncontested at Trials, but had to meet a time standard to qualify for Worlds. The lightweight women’s quad finished at 6:42.51, and the lightweight men’s quad came through the line at 6:11.61.