Boston, MA - The Iona College women's rowing team rowed in the Head of the Charles Regatta Saturday afternoon.

The women's varsity four of Colleen Ryan, Jen Dolan, Rachel Smith, Lauren DiGrazia with Toni DesSoye coxing, raced in the collegiate event placing tenth out of 27 crews. The result is one of the best by an Iona women's boat in recent history. It is the first crew within the past nine years to come in the top half of their event. The time was just shy of five percent of the winning time - a time that would have given the crew automatic qualification for next year's event - they came the closest of any Iona women's crew entry since 1998 to this 5% marker at 6.19%.

“I am delighted for the crew that they can come away from Boston with such a positive result, especially due to the windy weather conditions that affected all the competing boats on Saturday," said Iona head coach David Patterson. "I'm very impressed that the team has appeared to take these results and know that they can be better in the ulitmate goal of reaching the finals at the Vails in May."

"The program is moving in the right direction and is rapidly picking up momentum." coach Patterson continues. "The team needs to understand that we can really develop and grow if everyone puts in maximum effort, and I'm looking forward to watching them answer this challenge.”

The women's squad now goes back to training to prepare racing crews that will compete at the Fall Metropolitan Regatta in two weeks time on Sunday Nov. 5.