Men's and women's crew race in inaugural Hadley Chase Regatta

Both men’s and women’s crew competed at the Hadley Chase, a newly created meet, on Saturday. Hosted by UMass Amherst on the Connecticut River, the regatta featured some tough competition and served as a good way for both teams to prepare for next week’s Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the most famous events in rowing.

The men’s team had a successful showing in the collegiate singles event at the Hadley Chase. The Jumbos took four of the top five places, with senior Andrew MacMillen leading the pack with a time of 19:43.6. Finishing just behind MacMillen was senior Thomas Hendrickson with a time of 20:29.4. The streak of Tufts rowers was broken up by a rower from the United States Coast Guard Academy, who came in third with a time of 20:29.8. Rounding out the top five was sophomore Paul Gelhaus (21:08.1), who placed fourth and senior Tyler Hagedorn (21:11.5) who placed fifth.

The men’s team also took first in the collegiate varsity eight. The first varsity eight was led by junior coxswain James Grant, paced by senior stroke Ryan Bell and consisted of seniors Nick Hartman, Ashton Knight, MacMillen and Hendrickson and sophomores Gelhaus and Adrian Tanner. They posted a time of 16:21.4 to beat the 14 other boats competing in the race. The Jumbos’ second varsity eight finished in ninth with a time of 17.24.9, and the third varsity eight finished in 10th with a time of 17:39.8.

Tufts also raced in the collegiate quadruple scull, but was the only school to do so. Even though there was no competition, the Jumbos still rowed a good time, earning an 18:13.3 with a team comprised of sophomores Peter Malinovsky, Michael Thramann, Dean Ericksen and Ross Hamilton.

Coach Noel Wanner attributes the Jumbos' overwhelming success at the Hadley Chase to the team’s work ethic.

"The success of the team at the Hadley Chase was created by something very simple: continued, steady work the guys have put in over the past three years,” Wanner told the Daily in an email. “Starting three Falls ago, we began to spend much of each fall season rowing single sculls, which has helped the guys develop technical skill and finesse- the small boat is very demanding in that regard.  We've noticed that when we put the eights together, the increased sensitivity or 'boat feel' translates into more speed at a given level of fitness. Beyond that, it's just a lot of patient, steady training that the guys have done to increase their fitness level. This group wants to be good, and they understand what it will take to get there.”

The women’s team opened its season with the Hadley Chase and was met with varying levels of success, but did well despite facing off against Div. I teams. In the collegiate singles, the three Tufts boats finished sixth, seventh and eighth.In the women’s collegiate doubles, the Jumbos’ fastest boat, consisting of senior Arielle Mann and junior Erika Odmark, placed sixth out of 13 teams, earning a time of 21:42.5.

Tufts saw improvement as the day went on, with the first novice eight placing second in its race with a time of 19:54.1. The boat was composed of first-year coxswain Eden Miller, junior Lauren Drohosky and first-years Polly Harrington, Eva Elder, Erin Dwyer, Sophia Carroll, Gillian Mehigan, Nina Pittas and Sophie Bredenkamp. The novice eight only lost out to Dartmouth, who earned a 17:56.1. The second novice eight was not far behind, finishing fourth in 21:16.9. The Jumbos also had success in the collegiate quads. Tufts raced two boats in the event, with the first quad coming in third (20:27.3) and the second quad coming in fifth (21:38.9).

Tufts earned a respectable time in the varsity eights as well, with the first varsity eight, consisting of senior Emma Conroy, junior Libby Lichter, sophomores Jill Armenia, Camden Myles, Prairie Hammer and Grace Fabrycky, and first-years Elder, Harrington and Dwyer, finishing eighth out of 23 boats. The first varsity eight posted a time of 19:02.5. The second varsity eight finished in 16th with a time of 20:31.5.

The women's team was pleased with the results.

"[We] raced to expectations," coach Brian Dawe told the Daily in an email. "When rowing against Division 1 programs we make sure we don't lose, i.e. beat ourselves. It's one thing to get beat by these other schools but it leaves a sour taste we get rattled when rowing side by side with them. The Dartmouth freshman/novice eight passed the entire field and it took them a long, long time to get through us. Coming home in the last 200 meters our novice eight matched Dartmouth stroke for stroke to the finish line. We got beat but we didn't lose, and this was a theme for the women for the entire day."

Both the men’s and the women’s crew teams will compete at the Head of the Charles Regatta on Oct. 22.

The men’s team is looking forward to the challenge.

“The Head of the Charles is a challenging, chaotic race,” Wanner said. “Three miles over a tight, twisting river with other crews all around. The slightest steering error by your coxswain can cost you 10 places at the finish, or another crew can cause a crash in front of you causing you to lose time through no fault of your own. To do well at the Charles, you have to be fast, but you need some racing luck as well, so the team will give what they have on the day and with luck, we can do well. But it won't change what we do at practice the next week; we'll continue the daily work that has brought us this far, trusting that work to take us forward another step. Our goal is to race fully and completely, to give full effort and focus to the race. If we do that, the results will be good. Everything else is out of our control, and at the Head of the Charles, there's a lot of "everything else."”