In their first away meet of the season, the first varsity boat from Tufts women's crew placed second in both of its races on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester on Sunday.
"This was the first race of the season where we weren't on our home course [on the Malden River]," sophomore Zoe Sobin said. "We knew it was going to be a different race than we were used to, but I think we were prepared."
Though Saturday's scheduled race against Middlebury was postponed in the wake of last week's events in Boston, the Jumbos were able to fit in a pair of races on Sunday. In their first race of the day, Tufts finished with a time of 6:53.43 against Skidmore College and William Smith College, finishing second behind William Smith.
"I was satisfied with the results from our morning race," Sobin said. "William Smith finished third last year at the NCAAs so, like last weekend with Bates, we were happy to be able to put up a good fight and stick with them the whole way down the course."
In the afternoon, Tufts again finished second, this time by recording a 6:57.06 time against Clark University and WPI in the Brown Cup. Even though their time was slightly off the morning pace, Sobin felt the Jumbos performed better in their second race.
"We had a much better race technique-wise and felt a lot more stable and powerful than we had in the morning," she said.
Coach Brian Dawe was equally happy with the team's results, but at the same time wants to see his team continue to improve as the season progresses.
"We have many goals in each regatta, and I think it's very important to keep looking to the final race of the final day of the year," Dawe said. "Losing to the top-ranked Div. III crews in the country provides an opportunity to improve. The team wants to row the middle part of the race with better technical control. This week we will continue to look at top boat speed, but also try to stretch out the time where we row at cruising speed. Everyone is getting faster."
The second and third varsity boats, as well as a novice eight and novice four, raced in the morning on Sunday. The second varsity boat botched the start but caught up two boat lengths to come dead even with William Smith. They lost pressure in the second half of the race and fell to the Herons by five seconds.
The third varsity eight and novice eight raced the William Smith novice eight and both lost. The novice four beat Skidmore by 30 seconds but lost to WPI by multiple boat lengths.
The second varsity boat stayed on into the afternoon on Sunday to compete in the same event as the first varsity boat against WPI. In a six-lane race that included the first varsity boats from WPI, Clark and Tufts and the second and third varsity boats from WPI, the Tufts 2V came in third behind the Tufts 1V. Although all of the races went at the same time, each was ranked individually, and the boat-length lead that the second varsity held over WPI's 2V represented the only Tufts win of the day.
Tufts will race Wellesley, Simmons and Smith in their next meet on Saturday. Though Wellesley's renowned crew program figures to pose a formidable challenge, Sobin believes Tufts will be up to the task come Saturday.
"Wellesley is a very strong crew, so we are hoping to do the best we can and let all the work we've put in speak for us," she said. "As we look towards the end of the season and championships, we hope to continue to gain speed and keep showing that Tufts is a crew to look out for this season as well as in the future."
