Strokes Victorious at 2016 Head of the Lake and Head of the American
Adam Ray
The Oakland Strokes varsity men’s and women’s team excelled once again at the Head of the Lake Regatta in Seattle, Washington, highlighted by gold medals in two events. The Head of the Lake is one of the West Coast’s largest Fall regattas and is held annually on a course which starts on Lake Union, runs through the Montlake Cut and finishes on Lake Washington in front of the University of Washington boathouse.
The Varsity Women raced a fast second half of the race course to finish in 2nd place, beating all the Northwest teams and finishing just behind regional rivals Capital Crew from Sacramento. The women’s B entry rowed a strong race to finish 9th in the event. In the Under-17 Women’s 8+ the Strokes started fourth on the course and powered past all of the crews in front of them to win their event by more than 1 minute.
The Varsity Men’s team successfully defended last year’s victory, placing 1st, 4th and 9th in the Junior Men’s 8+ over a host of Northwest crews and regional rivals Norcal (2nd place) and Capital Crew (3rd place). The team showed its depth with both the B and C entries beating all other B entries from the other teams.
Results for the Head of the Lake can be found here!
Not to be outdone by their Varsity counterparts, the Novice Women’s team raced to a gold medal at the Head of the American Regatta in Sacramento in the Women’s Junior Novice 8+. The win capped a great day of racing by members of both the Women’s Novice and Varsity teams at the regatta.
