The men's crew team continued its rollercoaster season Saturday, going 1-4 in five races on the weekend against Wesleyan, Bates and New Hampshire.
The men's varsity eight eked out the narrowest of victories, winning by 0.51 seconds over Bates Saturday, while the rowers struggled in their other four races.
As has been a pattern this season, Tufts failed to win its first race of the day, as the first varsity eight fell to New Hampshire by nearly 20 seconds, pulling a 6:28.25 to the Wildcats' 6:08.83. Since opening the schedule with a victory over Vermont on March 31, the group has lost three-straight opening races.
"It's been kind of our M.O. this season to have really bad first races," senior captain Tim Pineau said. "I don't know if we're jittery, or not warmed up enough, or what."
But after the loss, Tufts recovered in time for its race against Bates, a team that also dropped its first race of the day, losing to Wesleyan by a margin of just four seconds.
"Our coxswain said not to worry about what [Bates] was doing, but just about us," Pineau said.
That mentality helped the Tufts crew, as it won its second race of the day by its narrowest margin of the season, finishing at 6:21.45 to Bates' 6:21.96.
"We went into the second race with a totally different attitude than we had going into the first," junior coxswain Faith Davis said. "We wanted to just relax and have some fun out there."
The crew team has not rowed in many close races this season, either winning or being defeated by large margins. For a team lacking in experienced rowers and upperclassmen, a close win like this one may help build some confidence down the stretch.
"We really proved something to ourselves during that race," Pineau said.
The change in attitude against Bates may not have been the only motivator for Tufts. With the boat's six-seat senior Anthony Dennis missing the rest of the season due to imminent shoulder surgery, the team also wanted to end Dennis' career on a positive note.
Dennis' injury is yet another test for a team that has been plagued by adversity this spring. The team lost several key seniors before the season began, including fall co-captain Jeff Vanderkruik. The loss of Dennis means that once again, underclassmen and less experienced rowers will have to step up to replace the veteran.
"Losing a member of our boat mid-season will be really tough," Davis said. "It's especially tough because [Anthony] is one of our seniors. But we've made it through losing other team members. I think the guys will be okay."
"We're about halfway to where we want to be, but we're very steadily improving," Pineau said. "We have a small team, we've switched up lineups ... we've dealt with things that other crews haven't had to deal with. We came into the season with a ton of room for improvement. When we come into New Englands, if we perform like I think we can, we can come out of nowhere and surprise a lot of crews."
Despite their progress, the underclassmen still have steps to take before they can successfully fill Dennis' void.
"We have a lot of guys who have just started rowing," Pineau said. "It takes a lot of practice to master a sport like crew. I've been rowing for eight years and I'm still working out the kinks in my stroke. So considering the circumstances, I think [the underclassmen] are doing very well and are improving very quickly."
This weekend, Tufts will be race on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond against crews from Ithaca College, Holy Cross, Colby, Conn. College, WPI, RIT and Washington College. Of those crews, Holy Cross is likely the class of the bunch, but Tufts still expects to have close races with WPI and Colby.
Although the team must focus on its weakness this week, it must continue to develop its strengths as well.
"Our starts have generally been very good," Davis said. "We're looking to stay strong during our third 500, though [spring crew races are 2000 meters]. Our main focus this week will be adjusting to a new boat. We're going to try to relax a little bit more and row our own race."
