The men's crew overcame choppy waters and an unfamiliar course to win three of its five races against Yale in its spring opener on Saturday morning.
The Bears won all three varsity races but dropped both freshmen races in their first-ever visit to the Bulldogs' home course on the Housatonic River in Derby, Conn.
"I thought the guys did a good job overall," said Head Coach Paul Cooke '89. "It was disappointing to lose the freshmen races, but I thought to win the varsity, JV and third varsity races were a really good accomplishment."
Two of the three varsity races were tight contests. The varsity eight crossed the finish line first at 5:28.78, trailed closely by Yale at 5:30.44. The second varsity cruised to more than a 13-second victory, coming in at 5:39.66. The third varsity prevailed in yet another dogfight, finishing in 5:52.62, 1.58 seconds ahead of Yale.
Cooke said that it was beneficial to win the close races.
"Anytime we race a tight race, it's a good experience," he said. "At the same time, you always want to win by as much as you can. But I think Yale is a strong crew ... and it didn't surprise me that they were tough to put away. I thought they raced a good hard race against us, and I do think that gave our guys good experience."
Ryan McShane '08 said he thought it would be most beneficial for the third varsity to experience the narrow victory.
"Those are the races that are usually decided a little bit earlier on in the races," he said. "There's usually somebody who's significantly faster than another crew, and they're over pretty quickly as far as who's going to win. But in this case, both crews put up a great fight."
Despite a strong effort, the freshmen eight came out on the wrong end of a tight finish, crossing the finish line 1.59 seconds after Yale's time of 5:40.22.
"The freshmen had a strong race but they weren't quite able to pull it out, so they'll be looking to gain a little bit more speed," said co-captain Paul Strombom '08.
Bruno finished second in the freshmen four race at 6:49.88, sandwiched between Yale "A" at 6:36.28 and Yale "B" at 7:03.03.
The Bears had to overcome a stiff tailwind that produced very rough conditions, much like Brown's home course. Strombom said that the similarity to the team's home course helped, but it was still a challenge.
"We have pretty rough water on the Seekonk usually, so I think that might have helped us in some ways," he said. "It definitely made the racing a bit nerve-wracking because it's much easier to make mistakes and kind of let the race get away from you, but I think that was something that we handled well."
The Bears will race on the Seekonk River on Saturday morning when they host Boston University in their first home meet of the season. McShane is looking forward to it.
"It will be nice, especially for us seniors," he said. "It's always fun racing at home. We're used to the race course, there's no traveling involved, no really early morning wakeups. Having everyone from Brown coming out to cheer you on the race course is really fun. I love racing at home at Brown, so I'm really excited for that, and for racing BU as well."
