Though miserably cold conditions blanketed the Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend, the women's crew team came out of its three races content with its performance, particularly after finishing in the top half in one of them.
Tufts raced three boats over the weekend: one in Lightweight Fours — for girls under 133 pounds -- as well as ones in Collegiate Fours and Collegiate Eights, both of which are open weight.
The lightweight team placed an impressive sixth out of thirteen on Sunday, the top finish for the Jumbos. The group was comprised of junior Kaylee Maykranz along with sophomores Jennifer Dann-Fenwick, Kathleen Holec and Miriam Gutman.
"They work very well together," coach Brian Dawe said. "They all have pretty good racing backgrounds. I was very impressed. The lightweight category is an open category, so it is not limited to colleges. You get some very competitive post-collegiate people in there as well."
"They are all experienced rowers and strong girls," senior captain Kate Woodard added. "Two of the girls in the lightweight four were in the varsity eight this last spring, and the other two … were big contributors in the freshmen eight last year."
Though the team's placement earned an automatic qualifier in next year's Head of the Charles, the other two boats did not fare as well, affected by the adverse weather conditions in the afternoon.
"I think Sunday was probably the worst weather in the history of the Head of the Charles," Woodard said. "God, it was awful. I raced on Saturday, which was lucky. It was freezing but not raining or sleeting or snowing. It was raining the beginning of the day on Sunday, and then it started snowing out of nowhere."
In the Collegiate Fours, the Jumbos crossed the finish line in 22:00.81 for 29th place. In Sunday's Collegiate Eights race, Tufts was 34th overall, finishing in 21:43.05.
"The goal for those two boats was to place in the top half of the competitors, and unfortunately this didn't happen," Woodard said.
With a cold weekend at the Head of the Charles behind them, the Jumbos can only look towards the future. Although the fall is coming to an end, the season is not over for Tufts. The team insists it must stay conditioned over the winter in preparation for the spring season.
"It takes a lot of dedication," Woodard said. "We have practice at 6:15 [a.m.] every day when we are in season. You really need to learn the sport, and I think we have a group of girls who have made the commitment and show up every day ready to go.
"Our focus this fall has been improving our techniques so we can better apply our strength," she continued. "We have been working in the weight room a lot with our trainer. I think over the winter what we need to focus on is cardiovascular fitness."
This season, the women's rowing team has made a strong investment in the future. Normally, experienced freshmen rowers go to varsity and new rowers remain on the "novice" squad. This season, however, the novices are integrated with the more experienced rowers in this freshmen class.
"Peer teaching works really well," Dawe said. "The people who are not experienced learn much more quickly. The experienced people get the chance to learn by teaching. It works really well to integrate all of your novices into your program from an early point."
"We also see a big benefit in class bonding," Woodard added.
The team will be racing at the Head of the Fish regatta in Saratoga, N.Y. this weekend. They will be "sculling," rowing with two ores instead of just one.
"We are really just going to have fun," Woodard said. "Many of us have never sculled before, so it should be interesting and exciting."
