The Riverside Boat Club’s mens youth double hoped to finish in the top five Oct. 19 at the 50th annual Head of the Charles Regatta, boys coach Katy Ruderman said.

With a strong headwind, seniors Jordi Cabanas and Aviv Preminger exceeded their own expectations, winning the 42-boat race in 18:9.66. It was the first time during Ruderman’s coaching tenure that a Riverside youth boat has finished in the top five at the Head of the Charles.

“It’s huge,” Ruderman said. “It’s awesome to be able to do that as a Charles River team. It’s really great to represent the river and the boat club like that.”

The high school doesn’t have a crew team in the fall, so many of its athletes row for the boat club.

Cabanas and Preminger, who were the 26th double to start, focused on opening the race quickly and had the quickest split to the first checkpoint.

“We had a boat that was pretty good in front of us,” Cabanas said. “We wanted to make sure we could pass them before any of the major bridges because passing a boat slowly can lead to a messy collision.”

In all, Cabanas and Preminger passed nine or 10 boats during the race.

“I sort of jokingly said if we pass 10, maybe we can win, and it turned out that way,” Cabanas said.

Preminger felt the team’s practice on the course was a huge advantage.

“A lot of the boats have never rowed on this course before one or two days ago. But Jordi has a lot of practice making the turns, and I think that really helped us,” Preminger said.

As they were rowing back to the boathouse following the race, Cabanas and Preminger said they heard some teammates shout, “Number one!”

“Aviv turned back and said, ‘I think they just told us we won,’ and so then it slowly hit,” Cabanas said.

“It took a little while to sink in but it was amazing. Just a rush of joy,” Preminger said.

Twelve other rowers competed on Oct. 19 as well.

Seniors Jonathan Lindstrom-Vautrin, Jalen Chow, Eli Shieber, junior George Roudebush and senior coxswain Liam Higgins finished 11th out of 85 boats in the men’s youth fours in 18:09.83.

The four finished in the same place as it did last year. By finishing in the top halves of this year’s races, both the youth double and the youth four qualified to compete in next year’s Regatta.

Senior Kate Finnerty and junior Elizabeth Hazen finished 31st out of 33 boats in the women’s youth doubles in 23:43.14.

Andy McLaughlin, who is in her first year of coaching in Brookline, said the boat was affected by the wind and had a disappointing race.

“When they got off the water they felt they had rowed as hard as they could, but unfortunately the result was not what we had hoped for,” McLaughlin wrote in an email.

Seniors Sophia Rintell, Abigail Herscovici, junior Hannah Lowenstein, sophomore Zohar Preminger and senior coxswain Camille Newsom finished 46th out of 84 boats in the womens youth four in 21:43.35, missing qualifying for next year by nine seconds.

McLaughlin said he was satisfied with the race.

“They felt powerful,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, they started behind several slower boats. This means that a lot of their energy had to be used to pass these crews, and the most optimal course could not be taken.”

The team’s final race of the season is Nov. 8 at the Merrimack Chase in Methuen.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at [email protected]