By Travis Gschrey, News Correspondent
Northeastern’s first and second varsity eight boats continued a successful start to their seasons, with both finishing second in their respective races at this past weekend’s San Diego Crew Classic.
Following their 2-1 start to the season in Philadelphia, the first varsity boat made the trip to San Diego in the hope of capturing the Copley Cup. Ultimately, they would post a time of 5.57.51, finishing second only to the University of California, Berkley by just under 8 seconds. In the process, Northeastern beat out Stanford University, The University ofBritish Columbia, George Washington University and Syracuse University
Placing second matches Northeastern’s best finish at this event, set most recently in 2004.
Northeastern’s second varsity boat also posted a strong time of 6.08.95 in their race, finishing behind Cal by 7.73 seconds, with Cal’s B squad finishing a distant third.
“The late winter delayed our normal progress into spring; we weren’t able to get on the water consistently during the two weeks prior to the Penn Invitational and, when we could get out there, we were more focused on selecting crews than preparing crews to race,” head coach John Pojednic said in an email to the News. “We usually do this earlier in March, so we were not as prepared to race as we usually are at the beginning of the season.”
Before last weekend’s race, however, the team says it felt more prepared.
“During the week prior to San Diego we were able to get much better practices in,” Pojednic continued in the email. “The crews also made some nice adjustments to rhythm, power application and race plan between the heats and the finals which set them up for very solid performances in the Grand Finals of the premier Varsity 8+ and JV 8+ events.”
The increased level of preparation was clear as Northeastern was the only team to stay close to Cal in either race. In the first varsity event, the third place team, Stanford, finished over 15 seconds behind Cal. As for the second varsity race, that same margin was increased to 18 seconds between first and third, with Northeastern soundly in second.
“The next step is to continue to have good practices in preparation for our next race,” Pojednic said in his email to the News. “Our crews have a solid foundation of training and time together under their belts, so now we can begin to build speed as we head into the regular season. The goal is to get faster through the season and peak in June.”
Northeastern will look to continue building off of this “solid foundation” before the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships in June, which could include a rematch with Cal.
NU’s next event is Saturday, April 12, at 9 a.m. against Boston University. It is the first race for Northeastern on the Charles River this season, as the team looks to continue their recent success in the matchup and bring home the Arlett Cup.
