The women's crew had a mammoth showing on Sunday, sweeping the varsity eight, second varsity eight and novice races.
The first varsity boat zipped past its competition at the Baker and Brown Cup during Sunday's race, finishing with a time of 6:51.08. WPI was in second place with 7:01.23, followed by William Smith (7:02.62), RIT (7:25:55), and RPI (8.12.97).
"I think that it's clear that all of our boats have been very aggressive in attacking the race plan and really trying to dictate terms," coach Gary Caldwell said.
That aggressiveness earned Tufts a No. 4 ranking in the latest Div. III Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association poll and two first-place votes. But Caldwell believes that Sunday's loss to Ithaca might affect the team's status.
"Ithaca's varsity eight will likely be ranked No. 1 in the polls nationally this week, [but] we may be able to catch them at some point," he said. "Earlier this season, some folks indicated that we were faster than Ithaca, but I think the race this Sunday indicated that we're not. So I don't think we're going to get any first place votes this week."
The women's varsity eight finished behind only Ithaca (6:43.71) during Saturday's race, taking second in a time of 6:51.5. Rounding out the rest of the pack were seventh-ranked Colby (6:53.71), Holy Cross (6:54.9) and Conn. College (7:08.2).
The first varsity boat's loss to Ithaca, which was ranked second in the Apr. 19 CRCA polls amongst Div. III schools, was the only scratch on an otherwise spectacular Saturday showing for the women.
The crew is having one of the best seasons it's had in quite some time: The first varsity's loss to Ithaca on Sunday was its first to a Div. III school. The second varsity eight is undefeated against the second varsity eights of other schools, and the third varsity eight is also undefeated. The team hopes that this momentum will carry through to the New England Championships, which will be held on May 7 at Lake Quinsigamond in
Worcester.
"We're psyched," senior co-captain Jackie Stone said. "It's definitely a representation of all the work we've done this year. We need to keep that same energy up and keep it up until New Englands."
Tufts' second varsity boat defeated William Smith by 7.1 seconds with a time of 7:13.50 to 7:20.60 in Sunday's race for the Baker and Brown Cup, and finished first with a time of 7:13.12 in Saturday's race, ahead of Colby (7:21.1), Ithaca (7:23.17) and Holy Cross (7:24.7).
Tufts had a varsity four boat race on Sunday, finishing fourth with a time of 8:30.58 behind William Smith (7:59.10), RIT (8:05.14), and WPI (8:13.33) and ahead of RPI (8:53.50). The varsity four boat took fifth on Saturday in 8:43.8.
The novice women's team also had an impressive showing in Sunday's race, finishing first with a time of 7:32.60 ahead of William Smith (8:08.51) and RPI (8:58.05). Tufts' novice boat (7:52.0) finished second in Saturday's race behind Holy Cross (7:42.3) but ahead of Ithaca and Conn. College, who finished with times of 7:54.9 and 8:10.7 respectively.
The third women's varsity boat also had a first-place finish on Saturday with a time of 7:13.9, ahead of Holy Cross (7:20.3), Ithaca (7:22.8), Ithaca's lightweight boat (7:30.7) and Colby (7:35.2).
In spite of the great weekend, the women know that they have work to do if they want to move up to the next level. They have the chance to continue their winning ways this Saturday in their last home showing at Malden River against Simmons, Wellesley and Smith.
"I think we really want to improve our start. We want to keep building strength so we can continue to keep winning," Stone said. "The flow and accuracy is also very important to us winning."
