Rowers enjoy the Head of the Genesee Regatta
Meaghan Yeatts, coxswain for a crew team from the State University College at Geneseo, started rowing when she was 10 years old. Polly Roberts, a member of the Naiades Oncology rowing team, started in her 60s. The women were among hundreds of high school, collegiate, competitive and recreational rowers who competed in the weekend’s Head of the Genesee Regatta.
“It’s a good race to see where our competitors are,” Yeatts said of the event, which falls toward the middle of the collegiate fall crew season. The regatta is also part of Rochester’s River Romance events.
On Sunday, teams from Brown University won the men’s open eight competition — a race with eight rowers and a coxswain — and the open four competition — a race with four rowers and a coxswain. Marietta College won the men’s collegiate eight competition. State University of New York at Buffalo teams won the women’s open eight and open four competitions. An Ithaca College team won the women’s collegiate eight.
Results are calculated by multiplying the results of a 1,500-meter sprint by three and adding them to the times from one three-mile race. All results and times will be posted at www.regattacentral.com.
Roberts, 64, would have liked to have competed in such races during her youth but says that there were limited opportunities for women in sports when she was growing up. She was diagnosed with throat cancer about two years ago and when she heard of the Naiades Oncology rowing club for cancer survivors, she signed up.
Roberts was unable to complete her first practice last spring because muscles in her arm and neck were weak after surgery. On Sunday, she completed the Head of the Genesee’s Corporate Challenge and emerged from the boat smiling. “I love being on the water,” she said. “The river changes all the time and you feel connected with life.”
