Although the boat fell behind by nearly a five-seat deficit, don’t think that worried coach John Pojednic. The crew stormed back, eventually taking the victory by a full second (5:27.8 to 5:28.8) in the Dreissigacker Cup over Brown on the Seekonk River.
“That was actually our strategy,” Pojednic said. “We wanted to not go hard off the start, get in our rhythm and inch back into it. I thought we executed our plan well, which is something we didn’t do in our first few races.”
Senior Brad Burns agreed.
“We planned on using our speed and fitness through the middle, and I thought did an excellent job,” he said. “We were calm, relaxed, and settled right into our race rhythm; stroke by stroke we pulled ahead.”
Both Pojednic and Burns credit the week of practice preceding the 39th rowing of the Dreissigacker Cup as the key to their success.
“The day before, we had what could’ve been my best practice since I’ve been at Northeastern,” Burns said. “Everything seemed to click; our bladework, and group of guys just moved as one. We pulled one of the fastest boats Northeastern has ever seen.”
“I think we were all on the same page, mostly due to our practice, we made it clear what we had to do and we did it,” Pojednic stated.
Pojednic has been impressed by Burns’ performance this season.
“He’s really stepped up for us,” Pojednic said. “I moved him into the stroke seat and he’s done a great job and really emerged as one of the leaders of this team. It’s great to see a senior step up like that.”
The victory was NU’s 20th Dreissigacker Cup triumph.
Burns credits the team’s unity as the reason they’re performing well as of late, and the reason he feels confident for the upcoming Eastern Sprints.
“Our biggest asset is that we’ve trained all year, and we’ve put in some pretty intense work together,” Burns said. “We’ve all been taking the same strokes for months and now we’re all coming together. The chemistry on our boat is amazing, we’ve got things flowing really well.”
On Saturday, the team heads to the Raritan River in New Jersey to battle Rutgers for the Congram Cup. On May 3, the Huskies head west to face off against second-ranked Washington on the Montlake Cut waterway.
Pojednic and Burns each share the excitement of having a chance to knock off the second best crew in the nation. Northeastern, who is ranked fifth, will also battle the Polish National Team in the Windemere Cup.
“Being able to compete with them is like a dream come true,” Burns said. “I have a few friends out there, and they’ve told me nothing but good things about the Cup, everyone is treated so well out there. If we have two solid week’s of practice, we definetly have a good shot.
“It’s a long 3,000-mile trip, but it’s definetly worth it,” Burns added.
“I’m excited to race Washington,” Pojednic said, “but we’re eager to see if we can upset them.”
