Sometimes all that rowers have to do is pull a good race. In other cases, they're asked to do much more.
On Sunday, at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, Mass., the members of the men's crew team were dealt a dose of adversity that they hadn't expected. The score sheet simply shows that the first varsity boat came in seventh, and the second eight came in 19th place in the weekend's race.
But the numbers are far from telling the whole story.
"It was a tough day with the weather like it was," coach Jay Britt said. "With that kind of rain, it was more of a matter of making the best out of the worst. It's really hard to row in rain like that."
Because of the inclement weather, the regatta was delayed from the start. Many of the competing crews were forced to sit out in the rain for up to 45 minutes as they waited for their races to get underway.
The first varsity boat's troubles began with an early collision, as sophomore coxswain Danie Damm failed to see an obstacle blocking the Tufts boat's course in the water, a piece of cement attached to two buoys.
The collision broke two riggers - the metal hinges that attach oars to the boat - and forced the crew to row all the way back to its launch point, where the Jumbo rowers attached new riggers as best they could.
They were then forced to row at race pace all the way back to the starting line, where the race had already begun. Forced to play catch-up, and penalized ten seconds for the late start, the crew struggled to get back in the race.
"Everyone panicked a bit at first," senior co-captain Jeff Vanderkruik said. "But all things considered, I think we rowed a pretty good race. We learned a lot about our team, and our coxswain, in the way that everyone pulled it together."
Senior co-captain Tim Pineau adamantly defended Damm, refusing to blame the sophomore coxswain for the incident.
"I've been rowing for a long time, and even the best coxswains make mistakes," Pineau said. "Danie's never done something like this before. I haven't lost any faith in her as a coxswain. No one got hurt, and it's not going to happen again. I think the other guys feel the same way."
"No one's performance [in the race] is going to make me pull them out of the boat," added Britt, who was also quick to defend his rowers.
The second boat struggled as well. Although they were the 13th boat to cross the finish line, they also ran into a setback, a collision with a buoy that penalized them down to a 19th-place finish.
While the weekend was a less-than-auspicious start to the season, the rowers do have a plan in mind for getting the team back into winning form.
"What we really need to do is keep our form together, and work on keeping the boat set," senior Mike Abare said.
The team now prepares to move on from this first race and learn from it as best they can. The Jumbos hit the water again on Oct. 14 at the New Hampshire Championships before gearing up for the Head of the Charles the following weekend.
"Our row was good - not great, but good," Pineau said. "It's really promising, but we need to work on being able to row these long races at a high stroke rating. I think that's something we'll focus on during the next few weeks."
