University of Tennessee Athletics
Rowing Central: Head of the Hooch
November 05, 2015 | Rowing
KNOXVILLE -- The rowing team will wrap up the 2015 fall season by sending six boats to the 2015 Head of the Hooch race in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Saturday. Tennessee will have two boats competing in the Women’s Championship 8+ at 11:14 a.m. The Volunteers will then have two novice boats in the Women’s College & Club Novice 8+ at 2:29 p.m. The Volunteers will close out Saturday’s race with two boats in the Women’s Championship 4+ at 4:07 p.m.
The Head of the Hooch is a head race where competitors row a 5,000-meter (3.1 mile) course on the Tennessee River ending at Ross’s Landing Park in Chattanooga. All boats will start sequentially by event and race against the clock.
The Head of the Hooch is one of the world’s largest rowing regattas, with 2,000+ boats scheduled to race over the two day event this weekend.
Last year, Tennessee had seven boats compete on day two of the event after day one was canceled due to dangerous racing conditions. Two teams competed in the Women’s Open 8+ as they took fourth and ninth. A boat coxswained by Harper Lucas finished fourth with a time of 16:26.4. UT also sent two singles and three pairs to the race.
Tennessee has competed in two races this fall as they sent one boat to Boston for the Head of the Charles. The Volunteers placed ninth in a very competitive field in the Women’s Championship 4+ race. A team of four freshman (Kirsten Girard, Pari Baker, Badia Shehab and Hannah Malzahn) competed with redshirt senior McDarragh Minnock to finish the course in 19:03.296 ahead of 10 other universities.
Two novice boats followed that up by competing at the Secret City Head Race two weeks ago. Tennessee took second and fourth as the novices competed collegiately for the first time.
