Often filed away as a consistently solid program, the women's crew made a splash this year, quietly storming up the polls and making history along the way.
Tufts received one of six bids to the NCAA Championships on Tuesday, and it will send its first and second varsity boats to the competition, to be held in West Windsor, N.J. on May 26-28.
Last season, the team's varsity eight received an at-large bid, but the depth of this year's squad through all the boats caught the attention of the selection committee and earned Tufts a team berth.
The Jumbos will see some familiar competition at
Nationals, and have high expectations going in to the regatta.
"We got one of six team bids and we're thrilled," coach Gary Caldwell said. "This is the next step up [from last year]. We've beaten Smith and Colby, and we beat Trinity in New Englands two weeks ago, and they beat us [at ECACs on May 13-14]. It's been back and forth, and it's going to be really tight racing."
Aside from Smith, Colby and Trinity, the rest of the Nationals field consists of Williams, Ithaca and Puget Sound (Wash.), as well as Colby and Lewis and Clark, whose varsity eights qualified as at-large bids.
"When we met in the fall, we didn't think this dream would come true," senior co-captain Jackie Stone said. "We need to maintain our [level of] performance for that weekend."
The nod recognized a stellar season for the crew that culminated in two key races late in the season. In one of its most important regattas of the season, the New England Rowing Championships on May 7, the Jumbos finished second in the Women's Point Trophy, the program's highest placing since 1992. Their 84 points were second only to Williams (90), and Tufts will get a chance to even the score at Nationals, as the Ephs received the only automatic qualifying bid to NCAAs by winning at the New England Championships.
With their placing at New Englands, the first three varsity and first novice boats earned a berth to the ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships, held on May 13-14, where they failed to place first, but turned in several high placings for a team second-place finish, tied with Ithaca. Williams, which won three events (second varsity, third varsity, and novice) and finished second in first varsity to win the conference, and the automatic bid to Nationals.
The second varsity boat fared the best, finishing only 2.96 seconds behind first-place Smith in their heat. The Jumbos' finish qualified them for the 2V Grand Finals, where they placed third, finishing behind only Williams and Trinity but ahead of Smith, which has bested the 2V consistently throughout the season.
In their first race of the day, the Tufts varsity eight came in at 6:47:712 behind only Smith. Moving on to the semifinals, the Jumbos came in second again to runner-up Williams, but outraced Trinity, a perennial New England powerhouse that the team has never beaten in the seniors' four years.
The Bantams had the final word, however, as the Tufts boat ran into some murkier waters in the Grand Final, finishing fifth behind first-place Ithaca, Williams, Smith, and Trinity, and ahead of only Colby.
The third varsity boat was unable to continue its undefeated season, coming in second to Williams in the Grand Finals.
The first novice eight finished sixth in their event after a second-place finish in their heat.
"I'm very proud of the squads' hard work and dedication to process, and we can see that it's paying off," Caldwell said. "I'm also proud of the rowers and coxswains in the varsity four [boat] and second novice eight. Their daily presence helps make everyone work harder, and their pride and dedication should not be overlooked."
The success that the Jumbos found this season didn't come without hard work, as the team's dedication over the winter break was rewarded with a spring run to NCAAs.
"Any season is complicated, full of challenges and stresses on and off the water," senior Martha Dietz said. "We had a fun, educational fall season and moved into a long winter of workouts. Our trip to Florida was certainly the reward for that - it was our best trip ever. And since then, boats have won and lost, but we have continually been growing, as athletes and as a team."
Dietz is one of seven graduating seniors on the team, which will also lose co-captains Jackie Stone and Daniela Fairchild this spring. While next season's team will miss the Class of 2006, as well as several rising juniors who will be going abroad, Dietz is confident in the team's ability to move on.
"Every team goes through the process of losing important members and all will recover," she said. "The tone of the team varies so much [from] year to year because of this change, but I have a feeling that with the precedent that has been set these past two years that it will continue to be an amazing group."
Stone will remain in the area after graduation to work in Cambridge, and plans to visit the Malden River next year. Her experience as a Tufts rower was a rich one and she is proud of the direction the program has taken over her four years here.
"I'm just so proud of this program," said Stone. "It's come a long way since my first year here. In my sophomore year we placed 10th and 12th in New Englands and I never thought it would be like this, where we have a chance to win the NCAA Championships. I'm really exited for the future."
Dietz pinpointed a moment on the medal stand in the NERC as the turning point of the season.
"The 1V had just been given our medals and were slowly pulling away from the awards dock," Dietz said. "I looked over on to the shore and the entire team was standing so close to the water [that] they were practically wet, cheering and yelling for us. Thinking about it still gives me chills. Our coach has been emphasizing team so much this year, and sometimes that is a challenge in a sport like crew where people are split up into boats. But that moment for me really defined what we have been working for - everyone proud of the entire effort."
That team effort it will be even more important when the team heads to NCAAs on the 26th.
"I hope they remember our team as a whole," Stone said. "We didn't have any defining people that made the program; we had 30 defining people who came together. It was a great team across the board that really came together. I'm really happy that I got to be captain during this period."
