The No. 15 Boston University women’s rowing team faced a close race for second on the Seekonk River Saturday, while the Bill Cup proved to be a tight race for the BU men’s rowing team on the Charles.
After leaving campus at 4:30 a.m., the women’s squad still didn’t seem awake three hours later when it hit the water. But halfway through the race, the Terriers woke up to get a much-needed victory over the University of Texas.
The Terriers finished in second place at Brown University on Saturday, wedging a 6:41.1 time over Texas’s 6:43.0, while Brown consistently remained ahead and won the race with a time of 6:33.8.
“The varsity race was nail-biting,” said BU coach Holly Hatton.
The first 1,000 meters looked ominous as Texas and Brown both led in the open water. But BU regrouped at the halfway point and was able to inch it out over the Longhorns.
Coming into the race, Hatton and her rowers were hoping to give Brown a good race, and more importantly to beat Texas in order to maintain their national ranking. With “poise and determination,” the Terriers performed strongly and were able to bolster their ranking, according to Hatton.
Nearing the end of their season, the Terrier rowers have continued to build confidence, but they still hope to iron out issues of race strategy by the end of the season in order to maintain and improve their ranking.
The second varsity and freshman teams finished their races with the same results – in second place to Brown, but defeating Texas. Hatton said the second varsity’s solid performance, along with varsity’s finish, is essential to getting a team bid for the NCAA championships.
The men’s team barely missed the Bill Cup on the Charles River, as Dartmouth College took it with Rutgers University close behind. BU finished the 2,000-meter course with a time of 6:00.4, just two seconds behind Rutgers and 4.2 seconds behind Dartmouth.
BU coach Rodney Pratt was expecting tough competition from Rutgers, which beat Syracuse University by one second more than BU did earlier in the season, but hoped his team would still be able to win. On the river, however, Dartmouth and Rutgers both proved to be formidable opponents, prompting Pratt to make changes.
“I have changed the lineup and they seem to be more comfortable in their new positions,” Pratt said.
With the change, Pratt said he hopes to improve his team’s performance, including a better start-off.
The men have three races remaining, plus the IRA Championship Regatta. Pratt said he hopes to improve his team’s positioning in the ranks and get to the finals in the sprints.
“We did not do as well as we would have liked, but a lot of things can happen in three weeks,” Pratt said, looking forward to these final races as a chance for his team to prove itself.
The second varsity had an equally tough time against Dartmouth and Rutgers, but was able to squeeze into second place, defeating Rutgers by 0.6 seconds, while Dartmouth was 4.8 seconds ahead. The freshman team easily swiped first place, with Dartmouth 7.3 seconds behind and Rutgers 13.8 seconds behind.
For the races next week, Hatton said she feels confident that her team has the ability to beat unranked Northeastern University and No. 17 University of Notre Dame, and Pratt said he is hoping his rowers will be able to beat Columbia University, which has not rowed well this season.