Tufts once again wins Brown Cup

The weekend couldn't have gone much better for the women’s crew team, who brought home a bright silver trophy after sweeping all three varsity races in which it competed.

Tufts retained the Bernie Brown Cup, for which it competed against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The varsity eight also competed against William Smith, Amherst, Skidmore and Clark, while the second boat took on William Smith and Skidmore in addition to WPI. Finally, Tufts' third boat only competed against WPI, while the novice squad took on William Smith.

William Smith proved to be Tufts' closest competition; the two teams led the field by a significant margin halfway through the race. William Smith led at the halfway mark, though the gap between the front two boats stayed small. The race remained tight, with the Jumbos managing to pull in front by six seconds at the 1500­-meter mark and hold their lead until the end. Tufts not only defeated William Smith for the first time since 2006, but also brought back the Brown Cup by defeating WPI, who finished third, for the second straight year. Amherst, Skidmore and Clark came in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Senior tri-captains Emma Peabody and Emily Eickhoff -- both on the first boat -- heaped praise on the team’s mental strength during the races. In particular, both rowers were proud of the team's ability to pull out a win in the first varsity race despite trailing William Smith for a large portion of the race.

“That was the first time that we’d faced that particular challenge of being behind and having to catch up,” Eickhoff said.

Peabody was impressed with the team's aplomb in the face of adversity.

“There was no franticness," Peabody said. "We kind of all had this trust with everyone else in the boat that we knew what we were going to do. We knew when we were gonna make our moves and everyone had enough gas in the tank ... [Then] we made our move and caught up to them and ended up beating them.”

Peabody also attributed much of the Jumbos' composure to their repeated practice of certain techniques and strategies. Though she felt the William Smith crew was physically stronger, she thought Tufts won due to its repetition and superior execution.

According to Eickhoff, coach Brian Dawe likes to reiterate to his team that their goal is to achieve a certain level of swagger.

"We had it for that race,” she said.

Tufts enjoyed similar success during Saturday’s race against Middlebury on the Malden River. The Jumbos knew the Panthers were a major force in New England last year, but they were also aware of the departure of Middlebury's former coach, Noel Wanner, for a position coaching the men's crew team. Tufts was nevertheless determined to put its stamp on New England rowing by avenging last year’s loss to Middlebury.

The Jumbos attained revenge in dominant fashion, sweeping all of the varsity races and only losing in the novice race. In the process, the varsity also notched a season-best time of 6:39.7 on the Malden River , beating the Panthers’ boat by 7.6 seconds. The second boat won by an even greater margin, defeating their opponents by 19.9 seconds. The margin of victory increased further still in the third varsity race when Tufts finished a minute ahead of Middlebury. Though the novice team lost, the sweep of varsity races gave Tufts a big boost in momentum heading into Sunday's race.

Reflecting on the current season as compared to previous seasons, Eickhoff was enthusiastic about how much she has seen the program grow.

“When I came in as a [first-year], people weren’t dedicated, people weren’t putting in the hours of erging,” she said.

Since then, Eickhoff has observed a major change in the attitude of the team; she believes that increased seriousness has paid off and will continue to do so moving forward.

“I’m looking forward to seeing -- even though I’m graduating -- how the team will do in the future," Eickhoff said. "I have every expectation that they will continue to get even better.”