Once in a while, a lower ranked group can make up for the losses of the team as a whole, and allow a program to find a positive result in an otherwise unsuccessful outing. This was the case for the men's and women's crew teams on Lake Quinsigamond Saturday morning.
The men's third boat and the women's novice team were the only Tufts crews to win their respective races in a regatta that featured boats from Ithaca, Conn College and Holy Cross.
On the warmest day of the season, with completely perfect waters and a straight course, boats from all four schools were able to compete at the same time, making for very interesting races.
"Conditions were great," sophomore Daniela Fairchild said. "They were pretty much ideal, and left us with no excuses."
The women's novice crew maintained its undefeated record with a dominating victory over all three schools. Completing the 2000 meter course in just over 7 minutes, 24 seconds, they had time to turn around and watch for 10 seconds before Ithaca crossed the finish line, followed by Conn and then Holy Cross.
"We had a really good race, probably our best of the season," freshman stroke Katie Saville said. "We just went into it knowing we really wanted to beat Ithaca, because this was the only race our novice boat has lost in the last two years."
On the varsity level, the women's top boat had a disappointing day, as they failed to rise to the occasion when the other crews made their moves in the race.
The first half of the race was quite even, with all four boats in contention. But after staying close, the women saw their chances of victory slip away when the Ithaca boat picked up its pace and pulled into the lead, well ahead of all the other crews.
By the 1500 mark, Tufts was still battling for second, but could not respond when Conn and Holy Cross also quickened their count.
"We were right with [them] until the sprint," said junior Lauren Sessions, who sat stroke. "Our nerves got in the way of us rowing a great race. Had we remained calm and rowed like we do in practice the outcome would have been very different."
The second women's varsity boat also struggled in its race. The Jumbos failed to find a good rhythm, and lost to Ithaca by forty seconds, at no point threatening to finish first or even second.
The men's crews fared similarly to the women's, with the third boat securing the only victory, while the first and second boats rowed to decent results.
At the start of the race, the third boat jumped out to an incredibly fast start, which proved to be the difference throughout the course. The crew held their lead for the first 1000 of the race, and pulled away from Holy Cross over the next 500.
While the team tried to hold onto their lead over the final stretch of the race, Ithaca attempted to make a move, but the Jumbos were too strong, staving off the charge, and winning by a few boat lengths.
"Our start was incredibly fast," sophomore Jon Gais said. "We got ahead by a few seats and then we were able to distance ourselves from the rest of the boats. Ithaca came back at the end, but we just out-pulled them."
Things did not turn out quite as well for the top two varsity boats. The top crew was handed a 14 second loss by Ithaca, and was also beaten by Holy Cross by 12 seconds. This does not bode well for the team, as Holy Cross is one of the crews they will be facing at the New England's in two weeks.
The second men's boat fared slightly better, barely holding off a late charge from the Crusaders although they too lost to Ithaca.
"We didn't really know how good Ithaca was going to be," said freshman Tim Pineau, who sat stroke. "The important thing is that we managed to beat Holy Cross, because we are going to be seeing them again soon."
