The men's crew team had a successful weekend at home, winning three of its six races on the Malden River. After racing with Wesleyan University, Bates College and the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the Jumbos are feeling more confident about their ability on the water.
The team faced Wesleyan, last year's New England champions, in its first race, but were not able to maintain a steady rhythm to pull out a victory. The Jumbos lost that race 5:54.9 to Wesleyan's 5:50.5.
"Against Wesleyan we just didn't race as well as we should have." Sophomore Jeff Vanderkruik said. "We lost to them by about a boat length, and neither boat made much of a move throughout the course."
Junior captain Ben Harburg agreed, and believes the Jumbos got off to a bad start in the race.
"[Wesleyan] started up on us due to the set-up of our race course and ended up jumping off the start on us [taking a boat length]," Harburg said. "This had a very negative impact on our race psychology and we were not able to recover from that initial lead."
The next race against Bates proved to be more successful for the team, as the Jumbos started out solid in the water, keeping a steady rhythm. The Jumbos maintained a substantial lead for the first 700 meters, but Bates was able to close the gap quickly. Tufts won the race 6:01.8 to 6:04.2.
Harburg said that the initial lack of cohesiveness felt by the team in the first race against Wesleyan had all but disappeared by the time that they raced Bates.
"We were much more relaxed and ready to drive the pressure down," Harburg said. "As a result, we got a huge lead off of the start and never relinquished it throughout the race, despite some powerful late charges by Bates."
The Jumbos were able to win two other races against Bates on Saturday, beating them 6:12.5 to 6:46.3 and 6:29.2 to 6:31.4. They also faced UNH, who claimed victory with a 6:03.3 time over the Jumbos' 6:33.3.
As the day progressed, the team was able to stay strong and work together, allowing them to row more smoothly on the water. The team's main coxswain, Faith Davis, was out for the week with an illness, and her absence tested the strength of the varsity eight.
According to Vanderkruik, the team was not able to prepare as well for the weekend's race as they would have liked.
"We had a poor week of practices last week, and are looking to make much improvement these coming few days in preparation for next weekend," Vanderkruik said. "We are working a lot with getting our stroke rating up and getting runs between our strokes. Our temporary coxswain is working very hard to push us, as well as fine tune her steering and strategy."
The loss of Davis is a challenge to the team, but one they are sure they will be able to overcome. As they practice this week on the water with their new coxswain, the team will again be working on improving its rhythm. To win races in the future, the Jumbos will have to be able to gel as an entire boat.
Tufts is still optimistic about the rest of the season, citing the close race with Wesleyan this past week as a strong point. They race Ithaca College, Holy Cross and Connecticut College this upcoming weekend, and look to gain more victories on the Malden River.
Harburg expressed his continuing faith in his team, and their hope of proceeding to the Championships in the future.
"I am very optimistic about our chances at New Englands," Harburg said. "By the time we get there, we will have had a chance to work on improving our speed and power in our starts, hopefully allowing us to compete well against the other schools."
