From First Boat to Head of the Charles, Wentworth Rowers Make Their Mark

The Wentworth Women's Rowing Team on the Mystic River

It's still dark when the boat is taken off the rack. The crew carries it down to the dock before setting it into the chilly water and climbing aboard. Their breath hangs in the air as the oars catch and the shell glides onto the Mystic River, the Everett skyline fading into the distance.

For the women of Wentworth Club Rowing, mornings like this have been the routine for nearly three years. On October 18, that hard work takes them to the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Two and a half years after Wentworth Institute of Technology formed its first women's crew, five members of the team will race in the Women's Collegiate Fours event, just a few miles from campus. The boat includes coxswain Evie Kittredge, Celeste Fowler in the stroke seat, Natalie D'Amico in the 3 seat, Sophia Lucido in the 2 seat, and Nina Minich in the bow seat. Spectators can spot them by their black blades with a red-and-gold stripe through the center.

Four of the five were in that first women's boat, which raced at the Chebacco Chase in Essex, Mass., in Fall 2024 and took home gold. None of them had rowed before coming to Wentworth.

"I remember just feeling an overwhelming amount of excitement and support from all of my teammates and the spectators at the regatta knowing that we made history for ourselves by taking home the gold," said Lucido, a Construction Management major.

Getting to the Head of the Charles required more than training, though. The team raised money to cover its application to the regatta, which placed them into a competitive entry lottery.

Lucido serves as club president, with D'Amico as vice president and Fowler as treasurer. The three plan practices, schedule races, and organize fundraisers. Lizzy Conover-Prentiss is the team's coach and in her second year with the group.

"It has been so rewarding from not only a rower's standpoint, but as leaders of the team, to see how far we have come since we became the executive board together," Lucido said. "Having rowed with these women for so long, it just feels like a family."

She adds that no single moment got them here. "Every practice that we have had," she said, "every odd that we have beaten, captures what it took for us to make it to where we are now."

Now they're about to race on one of the sport's best-known courses. The official start of the Women's Collegiate Fours event is 1:59 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18.

"It is the most surreal feeling ever," Lucido said. "If you asked us freshman year if we would ever race on the Charles, we probably would have laughed and said there was no way. It was something we could only dream about, and now, just three years later, we are actually getting the chance to do it."

Follow the team on Instagram.