The women’s crew team earned its first victory of the spring season last weekend with a varsity eight victory over Bates.
The Cardinal boat, rowed by Elizabeth Ogata ’09, Linnea Damer ’10, Deirdre Salsich ’07, Elaine Luriat ’09, Sam Schilit ’10, Eve Mayberger ’09, Radoslava Petrova ’07, Katie Boyce-Jacino ’10 and cox Jinny Jang ’08, completed the 2,000-meter Malden River course in 7:32.1, 13 seconds ahead of Bates.
“We came off the line well and were a little ahead of them,” Lauriat said.
The unusually harsh spring weather played a part in the outcome.
“The wind was definitely a factor in the speed of all the crews that raced that day,” Salsich said. “The Tufts course is not straight like it is at Worcester, so they have to do a staggered start whereby one crew starts further up than the other. It does factor in psychologically, because the best thing you can do is to make sure you’re ahead from the start.”
The Bates boat nearly crashed into a bridge a quarter of the way through the course. Its members adjusted their point down river and avoided a collision, but were forced to navigate back onto the course.
“By then we were ahead by quite a bit,” Lauriat said. “I think our crew did a great job in not being complacent with our lead. We didn’t let Bates gain back much distance.”
The Cardinals were quick to highlight the guidance of their cox as well.
“Jinny coxed on the Malden River last year, and did a great job of steering the boat, in addition to making some great motivational calls,” Salsich said.
The Cardinals’ efforts fell short in their varsity four race against Tufts. The boat, consisting of Ogata, Damer, Salsich, Luriat and cox Amy Nebenhaus ’07, finished the race with a time of 8:22.1, 6.2 seconds behind the Jumbos on the unfamiliar and unusual Malden course.
“The majority of our races take place in Worcester, where the 2,000-meter is a completely straight line, as are most 2,000-meter courses,” Nebenhaus said. “Malden is a bit different, though, because the course has an S-curve through the middle of it, rather than being straight. It puts a bit more burden on the coxswain to make sure that he or she steers an appropriate course to get the shortest line possible from start to finish.”
Still, the Cardinals began the race in good position.
“We had a good start, but somehow Tufts squeezed by us pretty early on in the race,” Luriat said. “We managed to stay with them, keeping our boats overlapped the entire way…Ogata did a great job of setting up a relaxed rhythm, maintaining as much length and power as possible. We bought it up on Tufts a couple times, but couldn’t quite manage to sustain enough speed to overtake them.”
The Jumbos lead bent but never broke en route to the close victory.
“They established their lead within the first 500 meters, but the remaining 1500 meters we did not let them gain any more,” Ogata said. “We were so close I could hear their oars right in front of us.”
Even though the Cards came up short, their work ethic cannot be faulted.
“We started up, but the Tufts crew moved quickly at the beginning to establish a lead,” Salsich said. “We responded very well and started taking back seats, fighting until the end. The margin was pretty small.”
Next for the Cardinals is the Little Three Regatta on Saturday in Pittsfield, Mass. In last year’s regatta, the varsity eight suffered a 36.8-second loss to Williams’ “B” team, while the varsity four finished with a time of 8:51.8, 5.8 seconds behind Amherst and 9.8 seconds behind first-place Williams. Despite the success and experience of the competition, the Cardinals are eager to build upon last weekend’s victory.
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