The men's and women's crew teams began their respective spring seasons this past weekend with a regatta at home on the Malden River, competing in head-to-head races in varsity eights, varsity fours and novice eights.
Both squads hosted Vermont, Tulane and Hamilton on the 2,000-meter course, and the women also took on Mount Holyoke and Simmons. No overall team scoring was kept.
Much of the Jumbos' success came on Sunday. The women, who raced three varsity eights, a varsity four and two novice eights over the course of the weekend, earned three victories on the day — one from their second varsity eight, one from their first varsity eight and one from their lone varsity four.
The first varsity eight blew away Tulane by 25 seconds in a time of 7:43.8 and the other two wins came against Hamilton, with the second varsity eight defeating the Continentals in 7:15.4 and the varsity four winning in 8:50.4.
The women's first varsity eight on Saturday went winless, but the second and third varsity eights picked up the slack, each defeating Mount Holyoke and Simmons. The second eights edged out Mount Holyoke by just six seconds (7:34.9) and beat Simmons by nine seconds (7:45.2). Meanwhile, the third varsity eight handled Mount Holyoke in 8:23.3 and Simmons in 8:03.0. The first and second novice eights each added one victory on Saturday as well.
Tough weather conditions played a large role in the outcome of this weekend's races.
"There was a big headwind this weekend, so the times posted might look slower," senior Bianca Velayo said. "Especially if you compare times from earlier in the morning to later in the afternoon, they get slower, not because we got slower but because the wind picked up."
Still, the third varsity eight and the varsity four were each undefeated for the weekend, and the team feels good about its performance.
"Overall we are feeling very positive," Velayo said. "It was just a great opportunity for us to finally compare ourselves to other schools — see what we have to work on, see what kind of strength and power we've built over winter training. We're all encouraged and feel like it's a really good start."
On the men's side, the team entered a varsity eight, two varsity fours and a novice eight. Although the men won only a few races, both first varsity boats came away with wins on Sunday.
The first varsity four overcame Hamilton by seven seconds (7:31.6) in its only race of the day and the first varsity eight snuck past Vermont by just three seconds, crossing the finish line in 7:09.3.
Saturday was more of a struggle for the Jumbos, who came away with just a novice eight victory in four total races. The first and second varsity fours were each defeated by Vermont, while the first varsity eight lost to Tulane.
The team was slightly disappointed with Saturday's results, but was encouraged by Sunday's wins. The men have just six rowers on the roster and therefore had to mix and match to fill boats throughout the weekend. In addition, the Jumbos called up three members from the novice squad.
The rowers feel that the lack of depth is both a blessing and a curse.
"It's a problem in the sense that you have to race multiple times in a day and that tires you out," senior Alex Ross said. "But it's also good because there is competition for that first four, and that helps drive us."
Tufts will compete on the Malden in its second regatta of the spring this Saturday hosting Bates and Wesleyan, among others.
