A week after shining at the Harvey Cup against Eastern Michigan, women's crew could not manage the same luster against Ivy League opponents Bucknell and Colgate Saturday.
Of the five races, the Bulls mustered a second-place finish over Bucknell in the Varsity Eight race, but Bucknell powered through the day, winning four of the five events. Colgate pulled for the win however in the Varsity Eight race, beating the Bulls 8:25.38 to 8:36.31.
Head coach Rudy Wieler, while not wanting to make excuses for the poor performances, tried to extract some reasoning for it.
"We tried to travel and race in the same day, which probably wasn't a good idea," Weiler said. "There aren't any real excuses, the crew teams simply didn't shine today. The (Varsity) Eights beat Colgate three weeks ago. They were dead even at the 1K on Saturday, but they lost in the last 1K by 10 seconds. It's very discouraging."
Amanda Garbacz, a member of the Varsity Eight boat, felt that the traveling affected their race to a degree, saying extra sleep would have helped.
"We had to get up earlier, so our sleep and eating patterns were somewhat affected," Garbacz said. "It was a long while before our race though, so we had time to relax beforehand. It was really wet and cold. Everyone seemed kind of out of it. It wasn't our best race by far."
In the first event of the afternoon, the Novice Eight boat placed third, crossing the line in 9:49.89. Weiler believed that the novice boat was simply rowing at too low of an intensity.
"The other teams were rowing (at a stroke rating) of 33 and 34," Weiler said. "Our team was at 31."
Immediately following the Novice Eight, was the Second Varsity Four team, which, in a two-boat competition with Bucknell, gave up the win by four seconds, a time that would be the closest of the day. For 1,500 of the 2,000 meters, UB had been leading.
In another two-boat race with Bucknell, the Varsity Four boat finished two of two, in a time of 10:23.80, over four seconds behind the Bulls' Second Varsity team.
In the last race, which included both the Second Varsity Eight and lightweight teams in the Second Varsity Eight race, Bucknell and Colgate battled for first and second, while the UB team found itself in competition with each other for third and fourth, respectively.
A major problem Weiler talked of was the rowing error of "crabs," which occur when a rower is unable to timely remove or release the oar blade from the water. The oar blade then acts as a brake, resulting in the slowing or complete stopping of the boat.
"The Second Varsity Eight caught four crabs in the water - they were all by the same athlete," Weiler said. "It can throw the entire race. Our lightweight boat caught some as well."
With the Metro Championships coming up, Weiler wants to re-evaluate his teams, moving people around to get the fastest boat possible.
"We did an (ergonometer) test today. We definitely need to change the lineups of the boats," Weiler said. "We have to see if we can bounce back and step up. We can see other teams stepping it up, and at a crucial part in the season, we need to see it with ours."
Weiler emphasized that consistency is the key to being successful, and that consistency can never be compromised.
"We are more capable than our performances showed this weekend. Maybe it was over-confidence on our part. We did a lot of stupid things that cost us," Weiler said. "Some of it is the coach's responsibility. They are young kids. But they have to realize that if you want to be good, you have to be good all the time."
Garbacz said that endurance and conditioning would be the main focus of the week leading up to the Metro Championships.
"We are going to show at Mets how we are ready to dominate," Garbacz said. "We'll have hell week where we overload our workouts, then taper the following week. We'll be ready to go by then."
The Metro Championships, held in Worchester, Mass., are slotted for May 7.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
