The Brown women’s crew turned in an impressive performance in a snowy Head of the Charles over the weekend, kicking off their fall schedule with an eighth place finish in the Championship 8 race. The Bears beat many of the top collegiate boats from around the country, including Michigan and Harvard, crossing the line in 17:00.9.

Starting from the sixth position in the head race, Bruno passed the first checkpoint in just over four minutes, and then continued picking up speed as the race progressed, gaining on the boats in front of them. ASR Nereus won the event easily with a time of 16:08, with the US National Team and Yale’s top crew rounding out the top three. The Bears came out just barely on the wrong side of a group of four boats, as Washington, Princeton, Virginia, and Brown all finished within 1.5 seconds of one another. However, Bruno was just edged by the three crews, pushing the Bears from fifth into the eighth position.

The Bears also turned in an impressive debut performance in the Championship 4+, finishing in 19:19 to take fourth in a strong field. The Old Glory Boat Club, a collection of elite rowers, won the race with a time of 18:14, pulling away from the field to win by a large margin. Boston University and Cornell came in second and third with times of 19:01 and 19:14 respectively.

The Bears will be back in action next weekend, when they travel to New Jersey to compete in the Princeton Chase on October 25.