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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

Jumbos host final home regattas of the season

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The Tufts women's crew team's 1st varsity eight participates in a regatta against Bates, Wellesley and Wesleyan on Apr. 14.

Both the Tufts men's and women's crew teams hosted regattas on the Malden River on Saturday.As the Jumbos' final home competitions of the season for the Jumbos, the regattas served as a farewell to the Malden for the teams' graduating seniors. The women's squad failed to tally a win against some tough competition in its seven races, while the men's team had better luck in its seven races, winning twice across all boats.

On the men's side, Tufts hosted NESCAC rivals Bates and Wesleyan in the lone regatta of the weekend.The races were held in four-team tournaments for each division, with semifinal and final races at the upper levels.

According to senior coxswain Josh Kaltman, the Jumbos were prepared to face some of their tougher competition of the season on Saturday.

"We knew that it would be tough this weekend," Kaltman said. "[Racing against] Bates and Wesleyan gave us the opportunity to have some more competitive opposition and to know what we were going into in the coming weeks with our championship races coming up."

The Jumbos had five different boats in the water on Saturday.In addition to its usual first, second and third varsity eights, the team sent out a fourth varsity eight to compete, as well as a smaller varsity four. Tufts went a combined 2–5 in its races on the day — a stark contrast to last week's regattas, in which the team went undefeated. The team's two wins came from the second and third varsity eights, with Tufts defeating Wesleyan in both races.

In Tufts' first race of the day, the third varsity eight defeated Wesleyan in its only event.The Jumbos topped the Cardinals by a narrow margin of just over two seconds, 6:35.26 to 6:37.40.

Tufts' second varsity eight also defeated Wesleyan in its first race, again by a tight margin.The Jumbos came in at 6:20.93, while the Cardinals followed with a time of 6:25.17. The hosts went on to lose their second race of the day, to Bates in the finals, ending the day with a 1–1 record.

Kaltman, who coxed the Jumbos' second boat, spoke about the win in the semifinal race.

"I was super pumped that we got that win," Kaltman said. "We knew we had to push ourselves really hard at the start, and we actually came out a bit behind at the beginning. It was great to beat [Wesleyan] at the end of a really close race."

The first varsity eight fared worse than its teammates on Saturday, as the Jumbos dropped both of their races to staunch competition. Wesleyan defeated Tufts' first boat by a margin of about six seconds, while Bates claimed a victory by a larger margin of nearly 20 seconds.

While Tufts' fourth varsity eight put on a strong showing against Wesleyan's third boat, the visitors came out on top, 6:40.64 to 6:46.25.The Jumbos' varsity four boat suffered a blowout loss to the Bobcats' varsity four, falling by a margin of 38 seconds, 7:23.56 to 8:01.74.

On the women's side, Bates, Wellesley and Wesleyan served as the visiting teams. With Bates and Wesleyan possessing the No. 1 and No. 2 crew programs in the nation, respectively, it was bound to be a tough day for Tufts. Despite battling hard, the Jumbos couldn't manage a win against the strong Bobcats and Cardinals boats, nor against the Wellesley Blue.

The women's competition mirrored that of the men's with four-team tournaments for each boat. Tufts' first varsity eight lost a close race to Wesleyan by less than three seconds before dropping the third-place matchup with Wellesley by another small margin of four seconds.

Junior Lauren Drohosky, who was a member of the first varsity eight, shared an optimistic view on the boat's two losses.

"All four of our boats have changes in the lineups from last spring, so we are constantly improving together as a boat," Drohosky told the Daily in an email. "Despite the fact that we lost a couple of very close races, we are extremely optimistic about the rest of the season and looking forward to racing more in the coming weeks."

Tufts' second varsity eight also lost its semifinal race to Wesleyan and its third-place race to Wellesley.The Jumbos finished with times of 7:23.16 (to the Cardinals' 7:19.01) and 7:38.61 (to the Blue's 7:17.55), respectively.

It was the same story for the third varsity eight, as the hosts dropped their semifinal race to the Cardinals by a margin of 22 seconds, before losing the battle for third place matchup to the Blue by a smaller margin of about nine seconds.Tufts also sent a novice eight to the water, taking on Wellesley's novice boat in its only match of the day.In that race, the Jumbos came up just short, falling by a 2.8-second margin (7:41.68 to 7:44.48).

The conclusion of Saturday's races marked the final regatta in Medford for the members of the Class of 2018, which includes five rowers on the women's side and five on the men's.

"Our seniors are absolutely incredible," Drohosky said. "Emma [Conroy], Sera [Busse], Lienne [Ng], Annelise [Ryan] and Arielle [Mann] are such a positive, unifying force on our team, and it can be surely said they will be greatly missed next year. Each senior has grown into an incredible role [model], and we honestly would not be the team we are without them."

The Tufts crew teams will travel to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. on Sunday for their next regattas, where they will face competitors from WPI, Skidmore and Washington College.