Meet the Stones, all in a row

At Charles regatta,

a family goes with sport's flow

Newton's Stone family, including (from left) siblings Robbie and Gevvie and parents Gregg and Lisa, has old ties to this weekend's Head of the Charles. (Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / October 19, 2008

As a child growing up in Newton, Gevvie Stone often confused the annual Head of the Charles Regatta with Christmas.

	Discuss
	COMMENTS (0)

The rowing fest on the Charles River was more than a seasonal benchmark for Stone. The regatta meant her father's old college crew buddies honored the pact they made at their graduation from Harvard in 1975, to reunite each October until they could no longer physically travel to the internationally famed weekend of races.

"All the kids got hot dogs and hamburgers and we watched movies and got presents, almost like Christmas," said the 23-year-old, recalling the Head of the Charles gatherings of her youth.

This weekend, the first-year medical student at Tufts University was scheduled to race in her seventh Head of the Charles. But it is just the second time competing in the regatta's Championship Singles race for the former Princeton undergrad, who was a vital cog in the Tigers' varsity eight that cruised to the NCAA championship in 2006.

The singles race, though, is hardly foreign waters. Both of her parents, Gregg and Lisa, won the marquee event in 1977.

During last year's women's Championship Singles race, her sister Phoebe and their father rode bikes along the banks of the Charles, cheering Gevvie to a sixth-place finish. It was the first time Gregg Stone was able to actually watch his daughter race in the discipline he identifies with most.

"I was so nervous, I didn't want to watch the race," he said of Gevvie's first singles event. "I didn't want her to see how intense an experience it would be for her to do my sport, because I am a single-sculler by nature."

In addition to her taxing schedule this year as a medical student, Stone meets her father on the Charles at 6 a.m. several mornings a week before she runs off to class.

In preparing for last year's Head of the Charles, Gevvie trained with the US National team, a squad she won a gold medal with two years ago at the under-23 championships in Hazewinkel, Belgium.

"I'm definitely more tempted to say 'Maybe I won't do it, maybe I'll do this instead,' " Gevvie said of her training regimen without a team, which she does once a day, compared with three times during her college days. "Then I remind myself what I'm aiming for, what I would be doing if I was with my teammates and what my former teammates are doing."

Setting a time to train with her father, she said, is "good motivation."

Last weekend, Stone and her 55-year-old father traveled to the Head of the Housatonic Regatta in New Haven, where Gregg finished second in the men's Singles Masters race and Gevvie won the women's Open Singles event.

The Head of the Charles marks the fourth time this fall they've raced in the same regatta.

"It's the same thing as talking with my friends, the only thing is my parents are more knowledgeable," Gevvie said, comparing her strategy discussions these days with her experiences on her old teams. However, she noted, "The other talk is different during the other half of our conversations."

Her parents met at the 1977 world championships in Amsterdam, a year after Lisa rowed in the Summer Olympics in Montreal. Three years later, Gregg qualified for the 1980 Games in Moscow, but did not participate because of the US boycott.

Despite her lineage, Stone didn't always row with her parents. At the Winsor School, where her mother coaches crew, Stone played lacrosse for two seasons before shifting to the family pastime. She said she was never pushed to row.

"My parents were great about it, they probably knew all along I wouldn't play lacrosse in college, but I didn't get it in my head until my sophomore year in high school," said Stone, whose brother Robbie is a freshman rower at Harvard. He is following in the wake of both his father and grandfather, Robert G. Stone, who captained the 1947 world-record boat for the Crimson. In 2001, the elder Stone endowed the coaching position for the Harvard men's heavyweight crew.

"We definitely have a bond discussing rowing," said Gevvie, "but my sister is not involved in rowing, so when the whole family gets together, we try not to focus the conversation on rowing too much."

Father and daughter will continue their early morning workouts as Gevvie sets her sights on next summer's US national championships, and qualifying for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Stone, who fell short in her bid to make the women's quadruple-scull event for this summer's Beijing Games, plans to complete two years of medical school before deciding whether to take a leave to focus on training for London.

In the meantime, Gregg Stone's local rowing friends will have to wait to get on the water with their old pal.

"When my friends ask if I want to row with them," he said, "I'm very proud to say I'm working out with my daughter."

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.