The boathouse on the Malden River might be new this year, but the women's crew team has been racing like it's in its comfort zone.
For the third consecutive week, the Jumbos defended their home turf, hosting the Mt. Holyoke Lyons on Saturday and proving more than adept at capitalizing on the home advantage.
All but one of the Jumbos' boats won their respective races against Mt. Holyoke, the lone loss coming from the novice boat - a combination of the fourth varsity four and the novice four - which dropped its race 7:15.67 to 7:29.59.
As has been a pattern throughout the spring season, Tufts used the race to test out different combinations of rowers on its first, second and third boats. On Saturday, the first varsity boat had junior Alison Ungerleider at the stroke for the first time, a change that seemed to work, as the women defeated Mt. Holyoke with a time of 6:53.48 to 7:00.88.
The race was more competitive than the time differential indicates, however. While Tufts started well out of the gate, Mt. Holyoke mounted a comeback after the 600th meter, pulling even at roughly the 800th meter. The Jumbos exhibited their strength and stamina over the final 1,000 meters, pulling away to win the race by seven seconds.
"They held with us past the boathouse where everyone was cheering for us," junior Caitlin Gallagher said. "As we entered into the final 1,000, we took our move to walk away from Mt. Holyoke and consistently continued to make distance. The best part of the race for me was our sprint, where we went from being halfway up on the Mt. Holyoke boat, to picking up our stroke rating and completely walking away and breaking contact with them."
The second varsity boat fared even better against Mt. Holyoke, defeating it by a time of 7:16.95 to 7:29.07. The biggest margin of victory, however, came in the race between the teams' respective third varsity boats, as the Jumbos trounced Mt. Holyoke, winning by over 23 seconds.
"I think our strength and conditioning just proved to be more than they could handle," coach Gary Caldwell said. "My guess is that they will be much more difficult to handle by the end of the season."
"All three varsity boats raced very well, showing the benefits of the hard work everyone has put in all winter," senior co-captain Faith Hester said. "We had the stamina and strength to pull ahead and maintain our lead."
In the coming week, the Jumbos face the dual challenge of building on their success this season while continuing to try out different seating positions within each boat.
"I think there are a lot of people that are stepping into new roles on the team and into boats individually," Gallagher said. "Intersquad competition for places in boats - seat racing - has been on-going for the past three weeks and will continue this week. Most importantly, we are continuing to build a trust and belief between teammates that will hopefully spread through to race day.
"This part of the season is the learning curve for racing," she continued. "This is the time when we figure out what it takes to win races and what we need to do individually."
The Jumbos will be put to the test at home again next weekend, when they host conference rival Wesleyan on the Malden River. The Cardinals last met Tufts at the Head of the Charles on Oct. 21-22, where the Jumbos finished 16th in the Collegiate Eights, 28 spots ahead of Wesleyan. The team will not race at home until the end of the month when it takes on Simmons, Wellesley and Smith on April 28, the last race before the championship season heats up in May - something the squad has been preparing for since it left Div. III nationals with a fifth-place finish last season.
