Tufts Daily

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Annie Wermiel/Tufts Daily The women's crew team, seen here in a recent practice, is welcoming back eight members who were abroad for the fall semester. The Jumbos spent their spring break in Medford practicing on the water.

With eight more rowers added to the mix, the women's crew team will kick off its spring campaign Sunday primed to build off of a strong fall season.

The Jumbos are welcoming back an entire boatful of members - seven juniors and one senior - who were abroad during the fall semester.

Tufts will also add two brand-new members to the team in the form of novice coxswains junior Jocelyn Pinkerton and sophomore Ana Chiu, who will lead the boats along with senior coxswain Alison Ungerleider.

While the fall season is essentially a warm-up for the more important spring season for most crew teams, the sense of cohesiveness and camaraderie acquired during that time - as well as the smoothing out of technical issues - can prove to be important in the long run.

So is there any way that this massive change in the roster could disrupt team chemistry? The team doesn't believe so.

"Everyone who was gone has reabsorbed really well into the program," senior co-captain Sara Douglass said. "We spent a lot of time together during spring break, which built team camaraderie. It gives us a lot more depth and helps build competition, which is pushing everyone to do better. It's really making a huge difference for us."

Coach Gary Caldwell attributes the seamless transition to the work of the two captains and to the rowers who came back and immediately started training.

"The eight who were abroad bought into the work the others were doing immediately," he said. "They knew the drill; they knew what they had to do and did it, and I think that speaks well of the dedication and maturity of the group."

Considering that the spring season features shorter races than the fall season, speed will be of the essence, and the added depth will help Caldwell decide which combinations are the fastest. This is an improvement from the fall, when a smaller pool of rowers limited his options.

Pinkerton, who transferred to Tufts from Tulane last year following Hurricane Katrina, and Chiu have never been coxswains before. Only Chiu has had previous crew experience of any kind.

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