After sweeping local rival Wellesley out of the water to kick off the spring portion of its season, the women's crew experienced mixed results in a busy weekend full of rowing on the Malden River.
During Sunday's sole race against a visiting Tulane crew, the Jumbo varsity eight emerged victorious by more than five and a half seconds versus the Green Wave, 7:23.55 to 7:29.19. The competition the day before, however, proved tougher for the same boat, which fell both times to its counterparts from Mt. Holyoke and the University of Vermont (UVM). Meanwhile, the second and third varsity eights won handily in their races against their respective Mt. Holyoke opponents.
On Saturday, despite rowing a full five seconds faster than it had versus Wellesley the weekend before, Tufts' varsity eight's time of 6:48.38 still remained two seconds shy of the winning Mt. Holyoke Lyons' effort of 6:46.35. After UVM and Tulane competed, the Jumbos went up against the Catamounts for both squads' second race of the day. Not surprisingly, times for both teams dropped, but Tufts found itself once again on the losing side, clocking in at 7:14.98, six seconds behind UVM's 7:08.97.
"That's the thing with seeing these teams for the first time because you have no idea how much work other teams have put in over the winter, and it was hard to say where Mt. Holyoke was going to come out," senior co-captain Steph St. Thomas said. "I think we know that we still have a lot of work to do, but I think they thought they raced well considering the conditions. We're excited -- we know we'll see them a couple times later in the season, and it'll be fun to see how much improvement we've made and how much improvement they can make."
Although the Tufts varsity eight's first race time of 6:48.38 was faster than UVM's first race time of 6:51.60, the Jumbos suffered a larger drop in time compared to the Catamounts when the two squads met later in the morning.
"I don't think it was a matter of fitness -- I feel like we're pretty much as fit as any other team out there," senior co-captain Kaitlyn Mula said. "It could have been a whole slew of things that put into a cocktail would throw out weird results. The conditions throughout the day were kind of crazy too.
"At the beginning of the day, it was moderately windy," she continued. "There was a cross tailwind and then by the end of the day it was like headwind, tailwind, side wind, every kind of wind you can think of. And depending on which lane you're in on the racecourse you get seriously affected ... so when you're racing that can easily be a factor to really affect your time."
While the varsity eight suffered a pair of setbacks Saturday, the remaining two varsity boats did not disappoint. In almost a two-second improvement from its performance against Wellesley, the second varsity eight rowed to 7:02.11 to comfortably beat the visiting Lyon boat's time of 7:14.05. The Jumbo third varsity eight cruised in similar fashion, dominating the third boat from Wellesley by almost 18 seconds, crossing the line at 7:20.35.
"I think in terms of the varsity not being successful and the second and third being successful just goes to show how much depth we have compared to other schools sometimes," St. Thomas said. "When they can put out their fastest eight people, then we wonder about their next fastest eight people and their next fastest and how they stack up against us, and it's exciting to see that even when our varsity isn't successful that our second and third can be really fast and do really well out there, so that's going to be important for New Englands, NCAAs and ECACs."
"In terms of the losses, you have to take it in stride because this is our second weekend racing," Mula added. "The competition has stepped up since last week, and we just need to see how deep we can dig in future. I certainly don't think that this showcased everything we have -- we certainly have a lot more to show and [that we] will show as we continue on."
The varsity eight was still experimenting with different lineups compared to the Wellesley race and even switched rowers from Saturday to Sunday. Sophomore Kaylee Maykranz and senior Becca Herbst were added to the boat while junior Kate Woodard took over for sophomore Alison Hodgkin for Sunday's race against the Green Wave.
"Aside from Kate getting in the boat, we also switched where people were sitting between Saturday and Sunday too because I think they felt that there was more potential for them to be more powerful," St. Thomas said. "They had an opportunity to be frustrated with a lineup change at the very last minute and they went out there and had a really great race -- I think they'd say it was better than Saturday -- and we can use that as a little bit of motivation for the rest of the week, that we know that we can make changes and boats will go faster."
While Tufts capped off the weekend nicely with a win at the varsity eight over Tulane on Sunday, the meeting between the two schools, which are separated by more that 1,500 miles, is less about competition and more about bonding and maintaining close ties between the campuses that date to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
"It's really fun to have them here because [Tulane coach Bob Jaugstetter] came and coached here our freshman year after Katrina and he's a good friend of [Tufts coach Gary Caldwell], so it's always fun for the seniors to see him because he was one of our first coaches here," St. Thomas said.
Now, focus shifts to this upcoming weekend with another busy Saturday on the Malden for the crew. With Wesleyan, New Hampshire and formidable opponent Bates arriving, the Jumbos know that their third weekend of racing will provide a benchmark of spring progress. St. Thomas, who has been a staple in the varsity eight but has been out with an injury the past two weekends, looks to make her return to practice today in preparation for Saturday.
"For the past two weeks, I've definitely had my eye on getting back for the Bates race," she said. "They've been a huge rival for us, and we didn't get to race them last year at this race. It's always fun to have Bates at our home court and see if we can use that advantage and come out on top.
"I think especially with Bates, it's important to get out at the start as fast as we can," St. Thomas continued. "This week there will be a lot of focus on getting out in the lead during the first 500 meters, otherwise they can just walk away and that's it. But if we can put up a fight with them the first 500 or 1,000 meters, then it'll definitely be a close race, and it can be ours to take."
