Only a week away from the New England Championships, the women's crew got a taste of things to come on Saturday. The team went head-to-head against Wellesley, Simmons and Smith, the latter standing right above them in the seedings for the New England Championships.
The seedings for the New England Championships were announced Sunday evening. Tufts varsity and junior varsity boats will both be the fourth seed in their respective events, while the third varsity boat took the top spot in its event.
"I'm really excited for our team this year," said junior Kris Shoemaker, a member of the first varsity boat. "We're stronger than we've ever been; from every boat down, there's just so much unity and strength. We have a really good chance at New Englands. We finally made NCAAs last year, which was the first year we'd ever qualified, and I think we have a really good chance of doing that again this year."
"This is great news compared to last year," she said. "Last year both our varsity and junior varsity were ranked either ninth or tenth."
The 1V from Williams is the No. 1 seed, followed by Trinity, Smith and then Tufts.
As they are likely to see Smith at New Englands, Tufts got a sneak preview, and didn't necessarily like what they saw. Both the first and second Smith varsity boats outraced their Tufts counterparts: The 1V beat the Tufts varsity eight 6:56.41 to 7:04.15, and the 2V boat defeated the Tufts second varsity 7:24.14 to 7:28.74. The 3V Tufts boat did salvage a win, rowing to a 7:37.21 finish ahead of the Smith 3V, which came in at 7:52.68.
While this weekend was the first real taste of spring for much of New England, an extremely strong headwind of nearly 15-25 miles per hour hampered the rowers, whipping up whitecaps on the water throughout the course. Smith, a physically stronger and bigger team than Tufts, was less affected by the headwind.
"Definitely, the headwind was a big factor for us," senior Martha Dietz said. "We're a fairly small team and that tends to be difficult in a headwind, traditionally. The physically larger team has an advantage in a strong headwind. I think there was a 20-mph wind coming straight down the course and it makes the feeling of taking each stroke very different."
Dietz believed that the team's mentality entering the race may have had a hand in the less-than-desirable results.
"We got ourselves too hyped up," Dietz said. "It was such a big race for us that we all wanted to win so badly, and we got overwhelmed."
While it struggled against the Smith boats, Tufts did not have a problem against Wellesley college, beating it soundly. The varsity team (7:23.48) sped past Wellesley's varsity boat (7:55.92). The second varsity boat fared even better, defeating its Wellesley counterpart 7:39.74 to 8:12.08.
The Tufts novice crew did not fare as well, losing in three of its four races. The first novice boat got the only win, defeating Smith by a time of 7:36.77 to 8:12.21, but losing to Wellesley by a time of 7:46.07 to 7:55.84. The 2N lost to both Smith and Wellesley in its races.
But all heads are turned towards Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester this Sunday for the New England Championships, one of the biggest rowing competitions of the season. The team enters competition familiar with most of its competition, as only Williams and Trinity will be new opponents.
