Men's and women's crew teams earn two sixth-place finishes

While many of the Tufts teams had home games this weekend, the men's and women's crew teams hit the road for the New Hampshire Championship Regatta, a three-mile Head Race on the Merrimack River.

On the men's side, the Tufts first varsity boat finished sixth with a time of 14:58.25. The second Jumbo boat finished a close eighth with a time of 15:15.97, less than one second in front of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy's first crew (15:16.75). Tufts' leading boat finished 52.97 seconds off of the first place finisher MIT, who swept the race with a time of 14:23.00.

The first varsity boat rowed well in warm ups, according to freshman Benjy Tarshis, and entered the race feeling confident.

"We had a pretty solid race," Benjy Tarshis said. "Because it's the fall season and people change boats, it was only the second race that we had been rowing together, so we did really well."

Because the starts are staggered by 10-15 second intervals, a boat has to focus on catching the team ahead of them. The Holy Cross team, which finished second overall, passed many boats and was Tufts' main concern throughout the race.

"They kept chasing us the whole race," Tarshis said. "Though they didn't pass us, they caught up to us."

With a number of strong members, the men's crew team looks to finish up the rest of the season positively. The Head of the Charles, held this coming weekend, is the next race on the Jumbos' schedule. The event is the biggest regatta for the crew team during the fall season.

Since they are racing against non-NESCAC schools, the team can count on facing some of the best crews from all over the country. Although the boat crews have not yet been decided, the team is looking forward to this weekend.

"I have never done [the Head of the Charles] before," Tarshis said. "I am only a freshman, so I am really excited to race in it."

In the women's competition, Colby rowed away the race in a time of 16:14.33. Following suit from the men's team, the Tufts varsity "A" boat placed the highest of the three Tufts boats finishing sixth out of 25 in a time of 16:51.39, just 1.23 seconds behind the University of Vermont (16:50.16).

The "A" boat got off to an excellent start, setting the tone for the rest of its race.

"Going into the race, we knew what we had to do," senior Beth Grosart said. "We knew what we had to do, and we did it."

Early on in the race, the "A" boat set its goal to pass the UNH boat. By the end of the race, Tufts had managed to pick up enough slack to surpass UNH by 25.33 seconds.

At the same event last year, the "A" boat achieved medaling honors. This year however, it fell a few places short.

"There were a lot of new crews there that hadn't been there last year," Grosart said. "Although we were hoping to medal, we weren't at all disappointed with ourselves."

The women will compete along with the men in the Head of the Charles this weekend.

Tufts also sent several novice crews to compete in the novice/junior/master event, which featured both college novice crews and high school boats. The men's novice finished fourth with a time of 15:26.90, behind two crews from St. John's High School and one boat from Shrewsbury High School. Two women's novice boats finished second and 28th in 17:21.98 and 20:11.47 respectively.

Both men's and women's crews can be seen this weekend on the Charles River against crews from around the nation.