For the women's crew team, winning the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta looked even tougher than spelling the Worcester lake's name.
The Jumbos expressed no disappointment, however, as they turned in solid performances in the Open Eight, where they placed eighth out of 21 entrants, and in the Open Four, where they rowed to a third-place finish out of eight teams.
Due to a late reshuffling of seating arrangements, the team was forced to race a varsity four squad and three varsity eights instead of just four varsity eight squads. Senior co-captain Sara Douglass was unable to row Sunday because of infected blisters on her hands. While her loss was a significant one, the team was prepared and took the injury in stride.
"It didn't affect the team as much since we have a pretty wide range of talent," senior Alison Ungerleider said. "For us, it's not really hard to bounce back, and we went out there and put out a great boat."
Douglass herself wasn't too discouraged by the injury, as it showed her that the team has the depth and the talent to overcome the setback.
"Everyone took the changes made [after the injury] really well," Douglass said. "It's a tribute to all the hard work we did."
It also helped that the team was practicing shorthanded all week - one of the rowers was out with strep throat - and as a result was essentially practicing for this very situation. Douglass says that her hands should be healed in a couple of days and that she'll hit the waters as soon as possible.
Douglass' crewmates adjusted well, finishing eighth with a time of 17:17. Bates' A boat finished first with a time of 16:09, and also the Bobcats' second boat finished third in 16:22. Holy Cross finished in between the pair of Bobcats entries in 16:16 for second place. The Jumbos also had two other boats in the race, with the B squad finishing in 12th place with a time of 19:01 while the C squad came in 19th in 21:42.
A strong headwind made the last 1,000 meters of the 4,000-meter race particularly difficult. The wind started to pick up when they reached the 2,000 meter mark and it got worse toward the end of the race.
The last-minute varsity four squad comprised of the seniors who rowed together two weeks ago in the Textile River Regatta - co-captain Caitlin Gallagher, Leah Koeppel, Jane Case and Julie McCarthy - didn't seem to be affected by the wind in its race. They finished with a time of 18:20 that put them only six seconds behind second-place Conn. College's B squad. The Camels' A squad won the race with a time of 17:58.
Racing in the Snake Regatta allowed the team to get a sneak preview of its competition, but the rowers know the schools they saw out on Sunday will be vastly different in the spring. Both Bates and Colby, for example, finished ahead of Tufts in the Open Eights, yet the team doesn't believe that this is a sign of things to come.
"I know it's nice to compete against all the teams that we'll be competing with in the spring, but the spring is a whole different ballgame," Ungerleider said. "After the winter season, we'll be a lot stronger in the spring than we are now."
In the Open Eight, Holy Cross placed three boats in the top 10, and yet Douglass doesn't remember them being this competitive last spring.
"Holy Cross had a good showing ... it's a tribute to the depth of their team," she said. "They did have a kind of home-field advantage, but I still didn't think they were that strong last spring. It really is hard to tell in the fall because it is a different type of season."
A better indicator of things to come will be this Saturday at the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the world's largest rowing events of the year. Here, the Jumbos will be able to compete against almost every school in the area, giving them a better understanding of where they stack up against some of the top teams in the region.
Even though she didn't race in the Snake Regatta, Douglass believed the team was using this weekend as a training course for the regatta this coming Saturday.
"I think everyone takes this week as getting ready for the Head of the Charles," she said.
