There proved to be one opponent that was still able to make a dent to the program. The stomach virus that has spread throughout the campus hit the Jumbos hard, sidelining three first-boat rowers for Saturday's loss to the Middlebury Panthers and weakening them for a third-place finish in a seven-team race on Sunday.
Regardless of the finish, the team showed an impressive ability to adapt to last-minute changes in personnel.
"Our first and second boats have both been coached very similarly, so it was very easy to substitute guys into the first boat," senior tri-captain Krzysztof Danielowitz said. "It was a little rough, but overall, it went pretty well."
In the seven-team race on Sunday, Tufts (6:07.56) fell behind winner Worcester Polytechnic Institute (6:03.5) and second-place finisher Washington College (6:05.51). The loss to the WPI Engineers was the toughest result of the day. With the victory, WPI took the Baker Cup for the 10th straight year.
This was the first time the Jumbos were competing away from their home course on the Malden River in the spring. Racing for the first time all year on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., the team got a glimpse at the course it will compete on for the New England Championship in two weeks.
"At the Malden River, we have this little advantage in knowing all the turns, and mentally, it is easier since you know the course markers," Danielowitz said. "At Worcester, we don't have that, and it was the first time this season racing when it's just a straight route."
There were two other varsity races on the day. The second boat also lost to both WPI and Washington College, while the third came in second between the two teams. WPI swept all three of the varsity races.
Despite the WPI-Tufts rivalry for the Baker Cup headlining the weekend, the day before featured a matchup between two teams with a new strong bond. The race against Middlebury on Saturday on the Malden River marked the first time Wanner coached against the team he used to helm. Now with Tufts, Wanner has definitively won over the rowers.
"I feel the biggest improvement is the tenacity [with] which we approached winter training and the improvement the coaching staff has had on our technique,” junior tri-captain Jonathan Lapadula said. "There has been a definite change in how people approach each practice."
Without first-year Andrew MacMillen, sophomore Doug Burt and senior tri-captain Peter Estes in the first boat, the reshuffled lineup came just seven seconds shy of pulling off the victory. The Jumbos' time of 6:05.1 was just seven hundredths of a second off their time from last week when they took down the Amherst Lord Jeffs. Tufts would not end the day empty handed; despite losing the varsity four-man race 7:00.2-7:03.00, the second varsity boat had the largest victory of the day for a varsity boat, defeating its Middlebury counterpart 6:29.9-6:39.6 to take the program's lone win.
With Sunday's race signaling the end of the regular season, all sights are turned to New Englands. The Jumbos will be off next week, and although they will surely enjoy Kesha's presence on campus, the emphasis is on putting on the best performance as the races get bigger. So far, this season has proved to be enigmatic, with no team in the field dominating the rest of the competition.
"We are in a better position than we have [been] for longer than people can remember," Danielowitz said. "[This season's] results don’t really make sense, so it’s really interesting since everyone is really close; this wasn’t always true in the past. We are going to be in the running for the top spots in New England."
