After competing out of state for their previous two regattas, the men's and women's crew teams stayed in Baltimore on April 15 to host the JHU Invitational. President William Brody, Athletic Director Thomas Calder and Executive Assistant to the President Jerome Schyndman were all in attendance to accept new boats being dedicated in their name. The Invitational was more than twice as large as last year's, thanks to the extensive promotion efforts of head coach Steve Perry. The Blue Jays met with moderate success in the races, particularly on the women's side, who highlighted the event for the home team with a first-place finish in the varsity four race.
The women's varsity four were dominant from start to finish, taking first in their heat as well as in the final. The Jays beat runner-up Loyola by a comfortable seven seconds to take gold on their home course.
Women's captain Angel Ko was proud of her team and is pleased with the direction the team is going.
"This is the second time we've raced the four and the second gold medal we've won," Ko said. "For the last few championship races the team will be transitioning away from the eight, and the four will become the more competitive boat."
As for the other women's boats, the varsity eight finished fourth, the novice four took third and the women's pair placed a distant second to a powerful Stockton boat.
Ko also praised the competitive mindset the women are displaying at this point in the season.
"When you're waking up at 4:30 every morning, exerting physical effort out in the cold, it's really hard on your body. But by this time of year, we've already adapted to the physical demands of crew and now it's all a mental game."
But sometimes even being mentally prepared can't overcome game-day flukes, as the men's pair boat of Lukasz Bugaj and Pete Ryan will attest to. Their boat crossed the finish less than a second after rival Loyola.
"We really should have won that race," team captain Bagaj said. "We jumped out ahead from the start and were rowing strong, but at about the 1200 meter mark our boat and Loyola's boat steered into each other and we clashed oars. This allowed Loyola to take the lead and we weren't able regain it. The results will say differently but I'm confident that we were the stronger boat."
The tough loss to Loyola in the pair's final was, unfortunately, a trend for the day. Loyola narrowly defeated the men's varsity eight final as well.
"We knew it would be a dogfight between us and Loyola. They're a very fast crew," Bugaj said. "We closed the gap on them at the Invitational. The five-second margin between us is the closest we've come to them this season, but in the end they pulled it away from us. We came away feeling pretty good."
As for the novices, both the eight and the four finished a respectable third in the finals.
"The crews that beat them were very solid," Bugaj said. Because of the single day schedule, some of the novice rowers found themselves rowing four races in a two-hour span.
"That's almost a feat in itself," Bugaj said.
Next up for Hopkins is the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints this weekend in York, Pa. Both teams will use the sprints as a barometer for what they will be up against at the season-ending Dad Vail Regatta. The Hopkins men have already handily beaten most of the other boats that will be at the sprints and, in the eyes of the Jays, the men's eight race should come down to themselves and the dangerous Ithaca boat, against whom they haven't raced this year.
"Unfortunately we lost some important practice time last week because of illnesses," co-captain Wesley Fredericks said. "We're working hard to make up for lost time this week. We're aiming for a first place finish at the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints this weekend, but it will be a challenge. Ithaca has a strong crew, so it will definitely be a close and grueling race. We're looking forward to it."
