The men's crew team went into the Head of the Charles Regatta on this weekend with high expectations. But in the team's final competition of the year, the team faltered under pressure and limped to a 40th place finish in the race's 58-team field.
Although the first Tufts boat started well, the adversity that has plagued the team all season reared its ugly head as the crew crossed under the Anderson Bridge. Sophomore coxswain Danie Damm took an aggressive line through the bridge, and the Coast Guard Academy crew failed to move out of the way.
The boats collided, and both crews were forced to stop rowing. The Air Force Academy crew was rowing nearby and tried to intervene.
"Everyone in [Air Force's] boat started yelling different things to do," Tufts senior co-captain Tim Pineau said. "But no one in our boat said anything except Danie."
Damm attempted to get the Tufts crew back on track but said that she was getting little help from the Coast Guard rowers.
"Coast Guard stopped caring," Damm said.
Tufts coach Jay Britt was less than enthused about his team's dismal performance and its failure to finish higher than 40th.
"We had a typical Head of the Charles for us," Britt said. "In crashing into another boat, the other crews in the race moved up on us. It's disappointing that we didn't finish as strong as we could have."
Despite the disappointing finish, the Jumbos managed to salvage the race and avoided slipping into last place. The Jumbo rowers may have been sloppy, but they were also well prepared for dealing with collisions.
"We recovered from the crash pretty well," Britt said. "We had talked about what to do [if the boat crashed] beforehand, and they did well. Danie steered a decent race on a very tough course. I think that she did a good job."
Tempers flared after the crash, as a member of the Coast Guard team approached Tufts senior co-captain Jeff Vanderkruik and confronted him about the earlier collision. According to the Tufts team, the Coast Guard rower sarcastically said, "Nice race," and started to berate Vanderkruik for the crash.
Vanderkruik handled the situation well, however, as he kept from letting the argument between the two teams escalate. Britt downplayed the conflict and said that his rowers did everything they could to keep things from getting out of hand.
"All we can do is control what we do," Britt said. "It speaks well of us that nothing more serious happened."
With the conclusion of the fall rowing season, the Jumbo rowers can look ahead to the spring season. Coming off of a frustrating fall, there is definitely room for improvement. Members of the team isolated several specific aspects of their game that need work.
"We really need to be able to keep our strokes together and raise our stroke rating in the sprint to the finish," Pineau said.
"Our rating is too low in the sprint," Damm added. "And the boat just looked heavy."
Damm emphasized the importance of "working more on endurance during winter training and the beginning of the spring season."
In this weekend's race, the Western Rowing Club won Tufts' division, followed by Queens University of Canada and Trinity College, which brought the top NESCAC crew.
Dale Hawkins of the Vancouver Rowing Club won the Masters singles event, followed by representatives of the Riverside and Union boat clubs, which are both located on the Charles River.
