With the biggest race of the fall season this coming weekend, the Tufts men's crew gained more experience on Sunday at the 2004 New Hampshire Championships Regatta.
The two eight boats finished ninth and 16th from a field of 31 open entries and 12th and 21st out of 48 total entries.
Each race in the fall is a three-mile long race, which differs from the shorter 2000-meter races in the spring.
"I think both boats raced well, but both teams had setbacks," junior captain Ben Harburg said.
The ninth placing boat consisted of seniors Andrew Mueller, Alex Moerlein, and Robbie Goldstein, juniors Mark Roberts and Jeff Burke, and sophomores Jeff Vanderkruik, Nick Haslett, and Benjy Tarshis.
"We got off to a slow start, but caught up with Colby," Vanderkruik said. "We held them off through the middle mile, but it was a big disappointment when they passed our boat and ended up finishing ahead of us."
Colby is one of the NESCAC teams the Jumbos have seen a few times this fall. Despite being passed by Colby, the boat had a strong finish as it passed one boat and made contact with another, attempting to pass them as they finished the race.
While the ninth finishing boat finished in the top fourth of the competition, the 16th-place boat ran into trouble in the last 200 meters of the race.
The boat was sandwiched in between two other boats, causing the oars of each boat to become intertwined and forcing the Jumbos to be boxed in.
"We were unlucky because we bumped another boat and had to stop for 10 to 15 seconds," sophomore Alex Argyros said. "Besides this, I think we were very stable though and had a good pace."
This happened not only once, but twice, causing the boat to lose significant time.
"I think the boats would have finished closer in time, 10th or 12th, if the boat wasn't impeded with the accident and the clash didn't occur," coach Jay Britt said. "This was a good lesson for the coxswains. Anytime we can gain experience, it's a good thing."
The second boat consisted of senior Andy Pelkey, juniors Ben Harburg and Jordan Chiu ('07), and sophomores Nick Walker, Tim Pineau, Mike Abare, George Kourdon, and Alex Argyros.
This boat actually ended up beating the UMass-Amherst boat, which was the boat they clashed oars with.
"It was frustrating because in the last two minutes we couldn't finish the race the way we wanted," Chiu added. "But it gave us the adrenaline rush to beat the team we were tangled with."
Incidents like this are not typical but do happened due to the twists and turns in the individual rivers.
The Tufts novice eights finished 22nd and 24th in a field of 26 college entries. Tufts did not race any boats of four.
"We had lots of improvements from the last two races over the past weeks." Vanderkruik said.
The Tufts crew has treated the past two races as practice races for this Saturday and Sunday, when the Jumbos will race in the Head of the Charles, the most anticipated race of the fall season.
The teams will compete in two races, the college eights and the club eights.
For this race Britt has decided to change up the boats, making one boat faster than the other.
This differs from the other two races when he essentially wanted to have two equal and balanced boats.
The goal of this race is to improve upon last years results and improve the squad's standings leading into the spring season.
On Saturday the team will race in the club men's eights as members of the Mystic Valley Rowing Association.
The next day the Jumbos will race in the college eights; this boat will be the stronger of the two.<$>
