In rowing, there are two types of races that occur and each style is associated to a specific season. The two types of races are “head” and “sprint.” Head-style races are typically held in the fall, while sprints are in the spring.
Head races are the longer-distance races, usually 2.5 to 3.5 miles. Each boat starts independently of other crews, crossing the starting line while already in motion. Boats will cross the start line in 15 – 30 second intervals and all race the same course along a river or lake. Often head style courses contain many turns. These races focus more on endurance than quick bursts of speed.
Sprint racing are shorter, and boats races directly against one another from a stopped position. The racing distance for sprints is 1500 meters for high school and 2000 meters for college. In sprints, boats race in lanes on a marked straight or nearly straight course. In a spring race, there may be as little at two boats, and as many as 6 boats racing across. In larger regattas, there will usually be qualifying rounds, then petite finals for non-qualifying boats and grand finals for the top finishers in the qualifying rounds. Qualification is by placement, not by time, i.e. a second place boat in one heat will qualify before a fourth place boat in another, even if the fourth place boat had a better time.
At Shrewsbury, the crew program races in both head (fall) and sprint (spring) events. The host program for a regatta will be responsible for posting the finishing times for the regatta. The most common sites used to post results are www.Row2K.com, www.RegattaCentral.com or www.herenow.com
The webmaster will summarize race results on the website and provide links to the site that contains the detailed results.