Entering the winter offseason, the women's crew team knew it had the potential to reap great benefits from a few months off the water.
After completing their head season in the fall, which consisted of four races in as many weeks, the Jumbos took their sizable roster and threw all their efforts behind training for the shorter races that characterize the spring portion of the season and further acclimating the younger rowers to the program. And now with its first race of the season at home on the Malden River tomorrow, the crew reflects positively on the concerted efforts the Jumbos put into the offseason.
"I think we were really impressed and amazed by how hard the freshmen pushed themselves, where there's a possibility for people to not really understand what they're supposed to be buying into and how hard they're supposed to work," senior co-captain Steph St. Thomas said. "They went really above and beyond our expectations, and it started with the senior leadership and from the day we got off the water in the fall to the day we got on the water in the spring, they all worked harder than we asked them to."
While time spent racing and training in the autumn was devoted mostly to easing back into rowing and regaining form, the winter proved a rigorous season for refining technique and attaining consistent form all across the board.
"We spent a lot of time on not only weightlifting and things like that, but there was a lot of erging videoing that we did that we haven't done in the past that I think helped get everyone on the same page for overall technique and how to row," senior co-captain Kaitlyn Mula said.
"They changed [rules about contact between coaches and rowers in the offseason] for injury purposes [so] we are allowed to tape ourselves erging at the boathouse and then we bring it to our coach [Gary Caldwell], and he can show us what we're doing wrong, which was great because we didn't have any injuries in the winter," St. Thomas added. "And when we got back, we were so much more effective and everyone was rowing the same. It shaved off weeks of technique training that we would have to do on the water."
One of the biggest questions on the crew's mind once it left the water for the winter months was the final look of the racing lineups. With over 40 women on the roster, most boasting at least some experience, there was ample room for Jumbos to push and set themselves in prime position come springtime.
"Right now we are looking at three varsity eights, a novice eight, which would be experienced but all freshmen, and we also have a [true] Novice Four," St. Thomas said. "I think so many people worked so hard that it's becoming really difficult to find out who should be in that [first] varsity eight because most people will make it go faster. For right now, it's mostly seniors with a senior coxswain [Jocelyn Pinkerton] who just got back from abroad."
While the Jumbos have a sense of the lineup for tomorrow's varsity eight, which will likely consist of rowers from all four class years -- the final breakdown for the boat won't be determined until later today after some final seat-racing.
"It's pretty similar to where it was in the fall but with people rowing so much better than they were in the fall," St. Thomas said. "It is going a lot faster."
An important part of the offseason was the crew's spring break training, characterized by twice-daily workouts to gauge how different rowers stack up against each other.
"It's a lot of seat-racing, so rower-to-rower competition to see who makes the boat go faster," Mula said. "A lot of decisions are made, and that's pretty much where [Caldwell] gets a fuzzy picture of what he feels each boat should consist of."
Given the apparent parity between so many of the Jumbos -- indeed, on the water during spring practice, the second varsity eight has beaten the first varsity eight on numerous occasions -- there will always be the chance for a boat's lineup to switch and shift in order to put forth the strongest boat possible for a given race. Unlike past springs, the crew feels that it will greatly benefit from such depth and intra-team competition.
"I don't think we will ever say that this is 'the' boat because we hope that every day we can find someway to make it faster," St. Thomas said. "I think that can be found by someone else in the second or third boat that's bringing their peak rowing ability every day."
"There's a lot more aggression every practice; it's like watch your back because if you mess up one day you're probably not going to last in the seat," Mula joked. "Gary has said on numerous occasions that there will always be changes made, that the boat that rows on, you know, March 28 is probably not going to be the boat that rows on April 28."
And with the Blue, an important local non-conference rival whom the Jumbos will row against several times this spring, coming up tomorrow in a head-to-head race, the crew intends to come out with its best foot forward to serve as a testament to the perceived success it witnessed during the winter offseason.
"I think we're hoping to be much more aggressive and explosive than we have been in the past, which has been the general trend for the past couple weeks, rather than being complacent," St. Thomas said. "We're being a lot tougher on ourselves, and hopefully we can see that we'll be that much tougher on Wellesley."
"So we're hoping for a big win, rather than just a win," she added.
