Crew team toiled through rough weather

It was another day of rough weather for the crew team on Saturday, as Mother Nature threw pretty much everything she had at the Jumbos but the kitchen sink.

At points it was snowing, raining, sleeting, and hailing. and the team saw some thunderstorms and powerful winds. In the end only 13 of the original 30 scheduled races went on as planned, but as a team, the Jumbos ended the day with several first place finishes, and a few disappointments.

The weather proved to be too much for many teams to test and most of the races were canceled because at least one of the teams just didn't show up. It seems the icy conditions were too much for many teams to drive to Malden.

One of the teams that was slated to come but couldn't make the trip from South Hadley, MA was Mt. Holyoke College. For this reason, the Tufts women's varsity team got the day off as Mt. Holyoke was its only scheduled competition. Senior Rebecca Clark, one of the Jumbo crewmembers who did not compete on Saturday, did not look at the day as a total loss.

"I think that the women's team showed its maturity and ability to deal with unexpected situations like the race cancellation," Clark said. "And those who did not have an opportunity to row as a result of the weather were able to take pride in the success of the teams who did row."

The success that Clark spoke of came in thanks to the Tufts second varsity squad's victory over Coast Guard. Although the team was not supposed to row against Coast Guard, it worked out well for Tufts. The Jumbos finished ahead of USCGA by over 20 seconds. Tufts came in at 7:33.9; while Coast Guard crossed the line at 7:55.5.

The team looked cohesive down the final sprint, as the Jumbos final 250 meters were both smooth and solid, and they did not seem to overexert themselves to the point that the boat lost its continuity.

The men's competition was similarly hampered by the inclement weather, though not to the extent of the women's. Facing nearby Boston College, the Jumbos did have the opportunity to put both the first and second varsity boats in the water. However neither varsity team left the water victorious.

The men's first varsity squad lost to the Eagles by exactly seven seconds, finishing the race in 6:13.2. Times for both teams were slow due largely to the inclement weather. In comparison the men's varsity team finished in 5:53.7 just a week ago when it took on Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The second varsity team also went down to Boston College, 6:10.5 to 6:36.4. Also due to weather, the men's time was dramatically worse than last week's, where they finished in a time more than 30 seconds better.

The teams are not overly concerned with their troubles in the early races, as they are typically used more as a chance for the Jumbo teams to get some races under their belts as a unit before the important competitions later in the year.

The meet that the Jumbos are gunning for at the end of the year is New England Rowing Championships. This year's race will be held on Saturday, May 3, at Worcester. The ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships will commence the week after, on the weekend of the tenth and 11th of May.

Currently, the team's focus is on practicing, improving, and logging as many hours of competitive racing that the team can find. Hopefully for the team, Mother Nature will comply.