By Peter A. Martin
The men’s rowing team has thrust its name into the discussion of best heavyweight men’s crew with an impressive fifth-place finish in the Grand Final at the San Diego Crew Classic Regatta yesterday.
“This was definitely a good start to the season,” said team captain Bill Benjamin. “Everyone finished so close together. It was exciting.”
The crew began its weekend with a third-place finish in its heat with a time of 5:46.18, narrowly edging Princeton and earning a trip to the Grand Final Sunday. Their time was also a half-second ahead of Harvard, a team that has tormented the Huskies in recent history.
The final was set with six crews, the University of Washington, Cal Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Northeastern, but a protest by the Princeton crew earned them a trip to the finals and set up a seven-boat draw.
All seven boats stayed even for the first 1,000 meters when the Huskies started to increase the distance from the field.
“At the 750 [meter] mark we built it up for the sprint and pushed right past Yale,” Benjamin said. “We took Stanford in the last 10 strokes and were about to go through Cal and Harvard at the finish line.”
The University of Washington won the final in 5:39.90, followed by Princeton in 5:41.80, but it was the rest of the race that gave the crowd some excitement. Third through sixth, where the Huskies ended up, were separated by just four-tenths of a second.
Northeastern finished the race behind Cal Berkeley with a time of 5:44.18.
“I think everyone at Northeastern should be really excited about men’s rowing,” said head coach John Pojednic. “It was an outstanding weekend of competition. The level of competition was as fast as anyone could have expected and we were very competitive.”
The biggest uncertainty for the team had been the inexperience of the rowers in the Varsity 8, whose lineup features two sophomores and three juniors. However, the meet alleviated some of those initial fears.
“This weekend we got the confidence that comes with successful racing experience,” Pojednic said. “We didn’t come out and beat everyone, but it was milliseconds separating us from the other crews. We know, going forward, that no crew is just faster than us and it will just be a matter of who rows the best race.”
The crew is back in action Saturday April 12 for the first race of the regular season. The Arlett Cup against BU takes place on the Charles River at 7:45 a.m.
