The Oakland Strokes varsity girls rowing team claimed the top spot at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston on October 23rd.

This event has taken place for the past 47 years, and this feat had never been accomplished by a junior girl’s team from the West Coast before. Campo’s own Krissy Lukins and Corinne Bozzini helped lead the team to victory.

“It was huge,” head coach Derek Byrnes stated. The Oakland team was projected to take 10th place, but after coming in at a time of 17:12.58, they won resoundingly.

Lukins said they “were all pretty shocked, it wasn’t really what we were expecting. I, personally, didn’t believe it for a while, but then it was really exciting.” Byrnes “was just excited for the kids.”

The Head of the Charles is the world’s largest two-day regatta. “It was ridiculous how many boats there were, all the teams from all around the country are there,” Lukins said. She also said there was “a lot or nervousness being around all the boats.” Bozzini was “ nervous but also really excited,” before the start of the race.

The Oakland Strokes team faced one major challenge during their race. While going through a two boat tunnel with three teams, the Strokes got tangled up, but they successfully maneuvered their way out. Bozzini laughed saying, “The other coxswain was like, ‘you can’t do this to me.’”

The varsity team had six high school seniors on their winning team of eight, including Bozzini and Lukins. The other girls on the team will be attending USC, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Michigan next year.

Lukins will be attending Princeton, and Bozzini is going to Harvard for college next fall.

Coach Byrnes says, “That’s not too shabby.” He also thinks the Oakland “name is out there.”

There next regatta will occur this weekend in Newport. After that they will start to focus on their spring season, and preparing for nationals later in the summer.