After a successful run at the Head of the Charles, the men's crew team continued to show promising talent at the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga, N.Y. this past weekend. Despite the cold weather and strong winds, the Jumbos persevered and finished the race pleased with their accomplishments.
The first varsity foursome placed 10th out of 21 total boats, while the second varsity quad, a combination of varsity and novice rowers, placed 19th in the same event.
Tufts also raced a varsity eight, which placed 16th out of 17 boats. Though that finish was far from ideal, the Jumbos do not believe their results matched their efforts.
"We had a strong race against a tough field and a headwind, but overall we went out and accomplished what we wanted to," Ambrozavitch said. "We all felt like we left our best out there and rowed well together.
"This particular course is a little shorter than most races, so we attacked the race a little harder than a normal fall regatta, with a higher stroke rating for the shorter distance," he continued. "It was a good segue into training for the spring season."
The Jumbos have not been able to compete at full strength for the past three weeks, as several members of the team have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms.
"With a small squad such as ours, it is tough to have consistency with boat lineups when people are sick for a few days at a time," Ambrozavitch said.
Tufts was missing four varsity rowers due to illness this past weekend, forcing novices into the roles of the more experienced team members. Under such conditions, the team's goal was to simply try its hardest and hope for the best.
"In the past, novices haven't done much with varsity, but now they have to step up and row with us," junior Ryan Flood said. "Some rowers had novice championships on Saturday and then came out to Saratoga to row with varsity on Sunday."
"[They] had a good row together and a strong showing considering their short experience with the sport," Ambrozavitch added.
Considering how undermanned the Jumbos have been in recent weeks — and how such a lack of depth impacts the healthy rowers — simply taking part in the race was an accomplishment for Tufts.
"The illness going around has affected us a lot, especially when we sometimes don't know our lineup until the day of [the race]," Flood said. "We had to take two days off [at] the start of this week so we could recover, but even then a few of us weren't able to fully recover in time for the regatta."
While some teams might be disheartened after facing such hardships, the Jumbos believe that the troubles they've endured this fall could serve to benefit them in the future. Forced to change roles due to missing teammates, the Tufts rowers are now more versatile than ever.
"Everyone on the team is comfortable with each other," Ambrozavitch said. "With so many lineup changes, we can now row anywhere in any boat comfortably."
The novices' participation in the varsity races should also be a positive for the future, as it could help to keep them tied to the team.
"A lot of times we have novices who drop out because they don't get to participate in varsity races," Flood said. "Now they have an opportunity to row with the team, and we hope it'll keep them wanting to stay with us for all four years."
Pleased with their fall results in the face of numerous difficulties, the Jumbos are eager to see progress over winter training and into the spring.
"We have a larger team this year than in years past," Ambrozavitch said. "Hopefully we can use that internal competition as motivation to get much faster as a team in anticipation of a strong spring season."
