Although last weekend's race against UMass was organized at the last minute, there would be no question heading into this weekend's races on the Malden River that the men's crew would be ready for action.
On Sunday, the Jumbos completed a weekend of racing on their home course with a solid victory over Tulane University in the varsity eight event. Tufts finished in 6:17.58 to outpace the visiting Green Wave, who finished over five seconds behind the Jumbos at 6:22.96.
With quartering headwinds at 15 to 20 knots, the 2,000-meter race was a perfect way for the Jumbos to cap off a long weekend of rowing.
"We had a good race and everybody rowed pretty strongly," senior co-captain Robbie Bayless said. "I was impressed with our overall effort."
Taking on the University of Vermont, Boston College, Harvard University and Williams College in a full slate of races on Saturday, the Jumbos earned a first-place tie in the varsity four event and two second-place finishes in the second varsity four and the novice four races.
In the varsity four event, the Jumbos got out to a great start, pacing their boat well for the majority of the race. Other boats returning in the opposite direction on the Malden, however, caused Tufts to go off course towards the end of the race. As a result, the Jumbos allowed Vermont to cross the finish line first.
"We were up for most of the race by a little bit, and we were rowing pretty well," Bayless said. "Vermont also rowed a great race and stayed with us for the majority of the course, but on the final straightaway, one of the boats from a previous race accidentally got blown into our course a bit. Our coxswain had to adjust our course slightly, and as a result, it took away a lot of our momentum. Vermont took advantage and closed very well."
After the Jumbos had made their complaints to race officials, the judges recorded the same finishing time for Vermont and Tufts, 6:50.80, earning a first-place finish for both crews.
"Right after the race, we contested the result and asked the referees to adjudicate," Bayless said. "Our coach and the Vermont coach got together and discussed the outcome of the race and they came to the conclusion that a dead-heat tie was the right result."
Tufts' second varsity four boat took a second-place finish with a time of 7:23.56, trailing only Vermont, who placed first in the event with a notable mark of 7:07.57. The Jumbos also were second fiddle to Vermont in the novice four event, taking silver in the race with a 7:46.38 finishing time. Vermont won by a healthy margin in the novice race with a time of 6:57.71, navigating the course almost 50 seconds faster than its hosts.
The Jumbos' varsity eight boat took on Harvard's varsity eight crew in a non-seeded race on Saturday as well. Although Tufts finished over 40 seconds behind the Crimson with a time of 6:48.05, the Jumbos were glad to have had the opportunity to compete against a top regional opponent.
"It's kind of apples and oranges a little bit [with the non-seeded race]," Bayless said. "We raced them and lost by three or four lengths, if not more. On one hand, it's fun to say that you've gone against Harvard, but they're really competing at an entirely different level than us."
On both sides of the weekend, the crews were forced to battle through less-than-ideal conditions. Faced with whipping winds and chilly temperatures, the Jumbos did their best to battle through the elements.
"The water on Saturday was real tough because of the high winds blowing at us in the boat," junior Brendan Coggan said. "It was a little calmer on Sunday, but the conditions were a big factor all weekend."
Tufts will welcome Bates, Wesleyan and the University of New Hampshire to the Malden River this Saturday. In light of this past weekend's encouraging results, the Jumbos expect to perform well and record some solid finishing times on Saturday.
"I think we have to keep focused, really row our race and work at rowing at a little bit of a higher rate," Bayless said. "We're going to see if we can translate our success in the Tulane race this past Sunday going forward into this weekend."
"We're going to be putting the same boats on the water this upcoming weekend, and we expect all of the fours to do really well," Coggan added.
