The Massachusetts women’s rowing team had a strong showing at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge this weekend, placing in the Top 10 in all of its races.

The Minutewomen were represented in the solo elite 1x race by co-captain Emily Boucher who finished seventh out of 23 racers. She crossed the finish line in  21:08.99.

Boucher has been the lightweight sculler for the under-23 United States national team for the past two years so UMass coach Jim Dietz has a lot of faith in her and said that he has no doubt that she belongs in the elite races.

UMass also competed in the team 8+ and 4+ races. The 8+ team finished ninth out of a possible 28. The 8+ team, led by coxswain Em Chiu, finished with a time of 18:46.21.

“I followed this race very closely and I was very impressed with the gals’ effort out there,” said Dietz. “Even before I saw the results of this race I was impressed with their intensity as they were racing at a good 31 or 32 strokes-per-minute. I was happy that the gals didn’t just go through the motions out there but they were really gunning it.”

The 4+ team placed 10th out of 20. Novice coxswain Heather Pekarovich led this team to a time of 19:28.44.

“At the beginning of the race I thought they were going a little light and that they should be on it a little more,” said Dietz. “But as the race went on they were passing boats as they went upstream and overall their finish was a good finish. It summed up a good weekend for us.”

UMass was also well represented in alumni races. Alumni Steph Hoph and Megan Donovan finished ninth out of 22 racers in the alumni 2x boat finishing with a time of 19:53.71.

Dietz also made the UMass program look good and helped his own cause in the alumni 1x race. He finished 24th out of a possible 51 alumni racers. UMass’s coach has participated in the Head of the Charles 46 times in his career. The race has only been held 47 times.

“I couldn’t tell you the amount of races alumni [have] represented UMass in,” said Dietz. “My truck looked like a kindergarten with all the alumni’s kids playing in it.”

Dietz said that he was very pleased with his team’s performance thus far, especially given the amount of talent they lost last year. A strong walk-on class has helped him out in the past few years, and while the team is young, he is glad to see progress at this point in the season.

“It’s a very young team, but I think we are moving in the right direction,” said Dietz.

The Head of the Charles race is one of the most prestigious rowing events in the world, happening annually on the Charles River in Boston. The event hosts everything from the best senior rowing teams, sports club teams, collegiate races and junior races.

The Minutewomen competed in a stacked field in this year’s event against some of the best college teams in the nation. As they usually do, the Minutewomen fared well in all their events. The annual race dates back to 1965 at the Charles Regatta.

This weekend continued an impressive string of success for UMass as it had a strong showing at the Head of the Connecticut last weekend, including a win in the Novice 8+ race.

UMass will continue its fall schedule this weekend as it heads to the Head of the Fish race in Saratoga, N.Y.

Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected], or followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.