Men's Crew Bows To Yale In Regatta Finale
May 13, 2000 | Men's Rowing
The Terrier men's crew closed out its spring regatta season on May 13 with a four-second loss to Yale over the Charles River 2000-meter course. The Elis were timed in 5:55.79, while the Terriers were clocked in 5:59.76.
B.U. now looks to the Eastern Sprints on May 21 at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester and then the IRAs in Camden, NJ, June 1-3.
In Saturday's finale against Yale, B.U., for the second straight week, fell victim to a wake that had a bearing on its performance for the rest of the race.
Last week on May 7 rowing at Wisconsin, the Terriers rowed well for the first 1000 meters of the course before hitting a wake. The result was a 14-second loss to the Badgers.
Against Yale, the wake was left by a pleasure boat that somehow or other found itself under the Mass Ave Bridge at the 1000-meter mark of the course.
At that point, the two boats had reached the 700-meter mark and the Terriers were down by just two seats.
Come on, boys, let's make the move right now, head coach Rodney Pratt pleaded from his launch.
As soon as Pratt had completed his sentence, his launch was hit by the wake. He gazed up the course and saw the pleasure boat, with its engine idling, slowly moving off the course. The damage had been done as it had already caused the wake.
With the Terriers rowing in the lane closest to shore, the wake bounced off the wall and came back onto the course causing a little more difficulty for the Terriers.
The wake came at a critical point in the race, Pratt said later. We were making progress when we hit it.
Yale was able to open its lead at that point and eventually have open water by the time the boats reached the MIT boathouse, about 500 meters from the finish line.
There was also a problem in the first freshman race where Yale appeared to have crossed into the Terriers' water and oars from the two boats clashed.
The Terriers made an appeal to the referee but the decision was made to have the race stand as it was. The Elis won with a time of 6:09.29, while the Terriers were clocked in 6:10.49.
Yale swept the featured races when it defeated the Terriers' second varsity, 6:07.44 to 6:12.49.
