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Men's Crew Loses Arlett Cup To Northeastern In Home Opener
 The Terrier men's crew lost to Northeastern with a lineup that was put together on Wednesday. Photo by Rob Klein. The Terrier men's varsity heavyweight crew, faced with a lineup that was put together just three days earlier, lost to the nation's third-ranked Northeastern Huskies in the 25th annual Arlett Cup race Saturday (April 13th) on the Charles River. Northeastern, which marked its season opener against the Terriers, was clocked in 6:39.0 over the 2000-meter course. In the meantime, the Terriers, who opened the home portion of their spring schedule after rowing at Syracuse and Brown in the first two weeks of the season, were timed in 6:54.7. The loss dropped B.U.'s record to 0-3. It was on Wednesday (April 10th) that Terrier head coach Rodney Pratt learned that one of his best rowers, sophomore Jaxon Rudduck (Sydney, Australia), would be lost for the season with a herniated disc. Rudduck first noticed a back problem last December and it because increasingly more painful. He rowed in the season opener (March 30th) at Syracuse and again last weekend (April 6th) at Brown. However, he has not been able to row since then. With Rudduck out of the lineup, Pratt was forced to make four lineup changes, including moving senior Mitch Johnson (Woodbridge, VA) up from the second varsity boat to the number six seat in the varsity boat. The other changes had sophomore Jordan Thurlow (Sydney, Australia) in the seven seat, senior Mike Strilesky (Vancouver, BC) in the five seat, and senior Kevin Valent (Jacksonville, FL) in the four seat. "Losing Rudduck was a significant loss," said Pratt. "Not just physically but also mentally. I know how I feel about his not being able to row. So, I know how the rowers feel. We had to put this lineup together in the last couple of days so it had a real big impact on us. "This is not to take anything away from Northeastern because they have a very fast boat," Pratt said. "We rowed as hard as we could." The two boats got off to an even start, but the Huskies opened up a boat length by the 500-meter mark. By the time the two boats reached the halfway point at the Massachusetts Avenue bridge, Northeastern had open water and never looked back en rout to their 15-second win. The weather conditions also didn't help the Terriers. There was a stiff headwind with gusts up to 16 miles an hour. The choppy water made it almost an unrowable condition. The Terriers also lost the second varsity and first freshmen races. The Huskies outrowed the Terriers, 6:54.7 to 7:23.2 in the 2V race, while Northeastern won the freshman race, 6:41.8 to 6:48.3.
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