[Update #3: July 5, 2011] Coxswain Colby Rapson ’10 and University of California, Berkeley’s freshman crew won the 2011 Henley Royal Regatta Temple Challenge Cup on July 3, capping off an undefeated season after soaring past the Netherlands’ Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereeninging Nereus to win by four-and-a-half lengths. Their finish time equaled a course record they set the previous day, winning over Harvard by one-and-a-quarter lengths.

[Update #2: July 1, 2011] The University of California, Berkeley’s freshman crew, including coxswain Colby Rapson ’10, continued their winning streak earlier today in London at the Henley Royal Regatta. Competing in the Temple Challenge Cup, Cal beat Imperial College London by two-and-a-half lengths. The regatta continues through Sun., July 3. Go, Colby!

[Update: June 30, 2011] The University of California, Berkeley’s freshman men’s rowing squad, including Colby Rapson ’10 as coxswain, earned another victory and set two records at Henley-on-Thames in the Temple Challenge Cup. The squad beat the University of Groningen, Netherlands by two-and-a-quarter lengths, breaking both the Barrier and Fawley records with times of 1.46 and 3.00, each one second beneath the previous record. The Barrier record of 1.47 was set in 1995 by Oxford Brookes University and tied by U.K. and U.S. teams four times, last by the University of Washington in 2010. Shortly after Cal set the record today, it was tied in another match, but Cal’s freshman squad will hold the record until broken. The Fawley record was set by Oxford Brookes in 1995 as well, but has not been matched until Cal’s team broke it, today.

June 29, 2011
Colby Rapson ’10 and the University of California, Berkeley’s freshman men’s rowing squad have claimed a first-round victory over the University of Warwick at the Henley Royal Regatta. The event takes place June 29 through July 1 at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames, a competition that dates back to 1839 and has been held every year, canceled only for the two World Wars. In May, the Cal men’s team won the Pac-10 championship and in June won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship. Rapson is the first woman coxswain recruited by the team.