The Malden River was busy once again this past Saturday, and though the times were slowed by rough conditions, the men's crew emerged with some strong performances.
With Bates, Wesleyan and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) coming to Medford, Tufts was kept busy on the waters all afternoon. The two most promising results came from the varsity four boats, where both crews came through with victories over UNH.
After the first varsity four's confusion last week in tying Vermont, Tufts left no doubt this time in besting UNH. The Jumbos were more than seven seconds ahead of their opposition, finishing in 7:27.32. Despite the trying conditions, the crew was able to settle in and put together a strong overall race.
"I think the conditions were pretty rough," senior co-captain Robbie Bayless said. "We were getting blown around, especially at the start. But we settled into the race pretty well. We had a good start and a pretty good first 500 meters and then really just responded to all the moves that UNH was trying to make as we came down the course. They kind of pushed at the 1,000-meter mark and came back on us a little bit, but we kept it together and rowed a pretty good race and stayed in control the whole time."
Though this mark was well off last week's finish, the changes in times could largely be attributed to the conditions, with a strong headwind slowing teams down.
"When it comes to rowing, you can't really compare times from different days because the conditions can change so much," senior co-captain Nahv Etedali said. "Two weeks ago, we had pretty considerable tailwind, and last weekend was a pretty strong headwind, so that slows down the boats."
The Jumbos were particularly pleased with the way they kept their pace in the middle of the race -- an area that Tufts has worked on all season.
"We have had really good starts and really good finishes, so we have been working to improve on the middle part of the race," Bayless said. "Against UNH we had a strong middle, so it was really good to see that improvement."
In the second varsity four, the Jumbos earned another decisive victory. This group came in at 7:36.50, not far behind the top crew and less than two seconds off the mark of 7:34.60 set by New Hampshire's top quartet.
"We won over UNH by a little more than a length," Etedali said. "The boat definitely felt pretty good we were swinging together. It's always hard to row into a headwind, but we fought through it. We came off the start line pretty fast and came out ahead. UNH brought it back within the first 500 meters or so, but after that we took a power 10 and moved on them some more and gained some more distance."
The second crew was also able to do so without too many power strokes, according to Etedali.
"Pretty much for the rest of the race we were either holding off their moves or moving on them on their base rate, so we were moving on them without doing power 10s," Etedali said.
Tufts' varsity eight, which was coming off a strong performance versus Tulane last Sunday, did not fare as well on the weekend. The Jumbos' time of 6:54.73 was well behind Wesleyan's mark of 6:34 flat. With only a handful of varsity rowers, however, Tufts will continue to emphasize its performance in the fours.
"We're focusing on fours this year," Etedali said. "We have a pretty small squad, about 10 varsity rowers, so we are more competitive on the fours."
With the New England Championships coming up on the first weekend of May, the Jumbos will leave their home course to travel to the site of the most important event of the spring season, Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester.
These waters are not unfamiliar to the Jumbos, who raced there in the fall at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta. Still, this weekend will give the team the opportunity to re-familiarize itself with the course, as they have two days of racing scheduled. On Saturday, Tufts will be one of five teams on the water along with Colby, Conn. College, Holy Cross and Ithaca. The Jumbos will be back on the Quinsigamond again the next day versus WPI, Rochester Institute of Technology and Washington College.
"Going out there this weekend should be nice chance to kind of familiarize ourselves with the course again," Etedali said. "We'll get the chance to get our mindset on where we want to take our moves at New Englands and gauge distances for our sprints for both the coxswains and rowers."
