Gevvie Rows into the Record Books with 8th Win

By Brooks Sutherland
Posted on October 22, 2017

With a 13-second victory at the 53rd Head of the Charles Regatta, Newton native Gevvie Stone made Head of the Charles history by becoming the first competitor to capture an eighth title as a singles rower.

Before Saturday, she had been tied with Jim Dietz and Anne Marden for the most singles titles with seven.

Stone’s time of 18:44 was three seconds faster than Felice Mueller, the long-time sweep rower who represented the United States in the single at this year’s world championships. Lisa Scheenaard of the Netherlands was third, while Anna Thornton and Kara Kohler rounded out the top five.

Stone, who started her medical residency in Boston in June, hasn’t been able to train as much as in prior years, said she had to find the record-setting title within herself.

“It was absolutely a mental battle out there today,” Stone said. “Just within myself, ‘how hard can I push? How deep can I dig?’ It’s tough. I definitely needed a hard race. The internal battle is like ‘how fast can I go?’ I mean that’s why I row, is to try to get close to an answer to that question. There’s something addictive about it.”

Stone jumped out to an early lead at the Riverside checkpoint, posting a time of 4:25.99. She then added splits of 10:24.67 at Weld and 15:35.97 at Cambridge.

Behind Stone, Mueller rowed a 4:32.35 at Riverside, 10:33.76 at Weld, and a 15:51.21 at Cambridge.

Despite facing an uphill training battle because of her schedule as a doctor, she Olympian didn’t feel as though anyone had written her off this year.

“I think it’s the opposite,” she said. “People were like, ‘oh you’re from Boston, of course you’re gonna win. And I was like ‘guys, it’s not easy, it’s really hard.”

Stone can from here-on-out only add to her already storied legacy at the Regatta. Three hundred thousand fans want her to come back next year and go after number nine.  The doctor however, isn’t looking ahead to anything beyond tomorrow.

“Day by day,” she said.