Despite a young team and two novice coxswains, the men's crew team rowed to promising results this past Saturday at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, Mass.
The Jumbos raced both a four- and an eight-man boat on the trying 5,000-meter course, and members of both boats were pleased with the results of their first race. The four placed fifth in its race, while the eight placed fifth out of the 15 crews in its field, which was won by Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
"I was really happy with the results," said junior co-captain Nahvid Etedali, who rowed in the eight. "We caught another boat at the end, and we pulled away from the boat that started behind us. At the end of the race we couldn't even see them, so we knew that we'd moved up."
The crew of the four also felt confident in their race.
"[The race] went very well for the first 3,000 meters," said junior Robbie Bayless, who rowed in the four along with senior co-captain Matt Diffey, sophomore Stephan Juergensen and sophomore Brendan Coggan. "We passed a couple of boats. It felt like a really long course though."
Both Etedali and Bayless noticed that the quality of each boat's row sufferred in the last 2,000 meters.
"At the start, we picked it up at 28 [strokes per minute], then brought it up to 30," Etedali said. "The first two miles of the race were really good. At the two-mile mark, a boat started moving on us, and our technique got a little ugly, but we pulled it together pretty quickly.
"I'd say that between miles one and two was the best racing we did, and between miles two and three was the worst," he continued.
Bayless felt the four could have had a stronger finish.
"I don't think we got as much in the sprint [at the end of the race] as we wanted to," Bayless said. "[The end] wasn't our strongest point, but we definitely picked up our stroke rate. We were completely and totally exhausted by the end, and that's to be expected in a long-distance race like that."
Both captains were impressed with the performance of their two novice coxswains, sophomore Callie Kolbe and freshman Josh Aschheim. Each had their first race on Saturday and, according to their captains, they adjusted well to rowing at the collegiate level.
"Callie did a great job steering," Diffey said. "She actually gave us an advantage over other crews at some points. Having one race under [her and Josh's] belts is huge."
"Josh steered a great race for his first time," Etedali said. "His course and his commands were good."
Textile River was the longest piece the team had done all season on the water, and was much more than it's practice routines. Fatigue - expected, as Bayless said - appeared and played a role at the end of the race. Unfortunately for the Jumbos' early-season results, their conditioning isn't geared toward these longer fall races, which can hurt them down the stretch.
"For the majority of the race, our technical rowing was awesome," Etedali said. "The conditioning program that we're doing is primarily for the spring season."
This emphasis on the spring seems to be a recurring theme among the team's personnel, from coach Jay Britt on down. Though the Head of the Charles, which takes place the weekend of Oct. 20, is always an important race, the team uses the fall season primarily as a springboard for the spring season, which has shorter races where short-distance sprints are key and technique becomes crucial, as there is less space to recover from mistakes.
"I think that the main thing for us to focus on is keeping our technique strong throughout the race," Diffey said. "If we do some longer rows in practice this next week, and get our coxswains some more experience, that should help."
The Jumbos have this weekend off, but will race in the New England Championships on Oct. 13 as their primary tune-up for the Head of the Charles.
