Fighting head winds and choppy waters, the men's and women's crew teams faced their toughest contender yet - the weather. It was a battle that all five schools competing on the Charles last Saturday had to wage.
"The weather was a factor everyone had to deal with," women's coach Gary Caldwell said. "All nine crews that raced did really well despite the conditions."
The men's varsity eight competed against Wesleyan and the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Wesleyan, considered one of the best teams in the league, had finished in the top five at Nationals last year.
On Saturday, the Cardinals commanded the race, winning in a time of 6:50.76 - but it was a tight battle between the Tufts and UNH. The Jumbos managed to edge out the Wildcats by 1.22 seconds, crossing the line in 7:01.18. Tufts also beat UNH last year in the finals of the New England championships, keeping it out of Nationals. This is the first time in eight years, however, that the Jumbos have beaten them in a regular season dual meet.
"We were happy to beat UNH," men's coach Ben Foster said. "Wesleyan is a strong, fast boat; however, I think we can beat them in a couple of weeks once we have some more races under our belt."
The times for these races were considerably slower for all three boats when compared with times clocked in earlier this season, mostly due to the terrible - and possibly dangerous - racing conditions the teams faced this weekend. Races were cancelled 20 minutes after the men's varsity eight race due to increasingly worse conditions.
"The conditions were extremely challenging," senior Jeff Lindy said. "Looking into the face of gale force winds and two to three foot swells, all we were thinking was we have to go out and survive. The team took command of the conditions and performed better than expected."
The women's varsity eight lost to Wesleyan and Simmons. Wesleyan crushed both teams, winning the race by over 20 seconds with a time of 7:41.6. Though Tufts also lost to Simmons, it was a battle to the end for both squads, with Simmons (8:03.7) just surpassing the Jumbos (8:04.2) in the last five strokes.
"I think we did really well considering the weather going into the race," senior Sara LeCain said. "We started well, despite the fact it was a floating start and sustained our power throughout the race. I was proud of the strokes the girls took under those conditions."
"It is difficult to figure out how well the crew did relative to times because of the conditions," Caldwell said. "Both [Wesleyan and Simmons] are very fast crews...everyone was racing with the same weather."
The women's lightweight varsity eight was dominated by Radcliffe College, which finished in 8:15.4. But in another battle to the finish, Tufts managed to pull ahead of Wesleyan by about six inches at the finish line, beating the Cardinals by two-tenths of a second with a time of 8:26.5.
Next weekend Tufts will face Holy Cross, Ithaca, and Connecticut College at Worcester. In previous races this season, Holy Cross's varsity eight men's boat beat Wesleyan, but lost to UNH, making forecasts for this weekend difficult. But coming off a victory against UNH, Foster has confidence in his team.
"I'm expecting to win," he said. "I think we can beat them if we race well."
Lindy echoed his coach. "I expect it to be a race," he said, "but we are going in for a win. I expect to be taking some shirts home."
The women's boats will also be going against a strong Holy Cross squad and an Ithaca crew that was invited to NCAAs last year. The Jumbos will see some changes for this race, including the return of freshman Bridie McElroy coming from injury.
"In the past couple of years both of these teams have been very strong teams," LeCain said. "I don't by any means think this will be an easy race, but I'm looking forward to it. I've been impressed with the strides all three boats have been making this season and we will continue to make improvements."
