Learning From the Best: A Thank You Note to Marist Crew

As this school year, marking the end of my collegiate rowing career, ends, I have definitely been reflecting back on the last four years. Rowing at Marist has been a great experience for me and I hope that my team has learned as much from me as I have from them. On a current varsity team with only eleven rowers and three coxswains, we have gotten very close with each other, forging friendships in unexpected places as well as strengthening friendships we’ve always had. Every person brings something special to the team and all of these parts have created a cohesive whole. I will definitely miss every single one of these people and I wanted to show what makes each of them so vital to our team. Every rower could learn from these thirteen girls. 

Every coxswain should take no prisoners, like Zoe. Zoe is one of the best coxswains I’ve had and that is because she will do everything in her power to get us ahead. She steers like a champ and very rarely, if ever, messes up a call in practice. She never lets us start behind, she always steals the flat water if she can, she docks with style and she can somehow read our coach’s mind, meaning we get yelled at less. As a sculler at heart, I can get frustrated with coxswains very easily, but I think Zoe and I are on the same wave length most of the time. And if we’re not, it’s because she’s three steps ahead of me.  

 

Every rower should be positive like Theresa. I am pretty sure that I have never heard a truly negative comment from come from Theresa’s mouth, ever. On the very rare days that she shows up to practice without a smile, I know that something is very wrong. After ending her spring season with a broken wrist in March, Theresa has never complained. She still shows up every morning with a smile to be our assistant coach from the launch.

Every rower should be competitive like Flavia. Flavia’s like the honey badger: she doesn’t give a shit what boat she’s in or who she’s racing, she’s going to give it her all to make sure her boat’s bowball is crossing the finish line first.  The happiest I’ve seen Flav is when 1) she PRs on her 2k and 2) when we have a good practice beating up on other boats and 3) when we win races. She is not afraid to push herself or others to compete at a higher level.

Every rower should be able to find humor in any situation, like Meg. This past year, I have spent a lot of time with Meg. She sits next to me when we erg and she’s my pair in the boat. And if I’m laughing in the middle of practice, it’s probably because Meg said some offhand remark that is making me almost pee my pants. From sassing our coaches to making fun of me, Meg always lightens the mood at practice, on the bus or at races. 

Every rower should believe in themselves like Sarah. Sarah, a former swimmer for Marist, was thrown into the V8 after rowing for three weeks. She had literally never touched an oar in her life at the end of February and then was put in our boat at the end of March. Despite dealing with the most yelling constructive criticism from our coach as he brought her up to speed, Sarah never seemed to get frustrated. She improved leaps and bounds and I think that’s due to her innate athletic confidence in her ability to perform when the time calls.

Every coxswain should be even tempered, like Jen G. Due to our lack of a true 2V this year, Jen was not been able to cox that much. Whenever we enter a 2V in a race, it’s usually some combination of freshmen that Jen gets to cox. Jen never gets frustrated with them and has an incredible teaching personality, which helps immensely in the beginning of this year.

Every rower should be enthusiastic like Eleni. When Eleni first joined the team as a freshman walk-on, it was easy to tell that she wanted to be all in for the team. A lot of freshmen walk-ons are there for the social aspect, but Eleni was enthusiastic about both the sport and the people she was working with. She enjoys being on the water and works hard to improve her rowing, even as an upperclassman.

Every rower should be determined like Jenn. At 5’1”, Jenn is one of the smallest rowers in our boathouse. Most people, including our coach, looked at her and didn’t think she could row well. Despite her size disadvantage, she now is consistently one of the fastest ergs on the team (and if we weight adjusted erg scores, she likely would be the fastest). This is due to her incredible work ethic as well as her phenomenal amount of mental toughness. Nobody tells Jenn what she can’t do.

Every rower should have the desire to improve their technique like Kelsey. Kelsey just wants to become a better rower. She’s sat behind me for two years now and her main complaint about our coach is that he doesn’t criticize her enough. Most rowers would be happy to stay under the radar, but not Kelsey. She’s not afraid to ask if she has corrected a mistake and is constantly asking Jenn, who sits behind her, to look out for her problems. When something is wrong in the boat, Kelsey is just as likely to blame herself as other people and works to make corrections on every stroke.

 

Every coxswain should be able to balance life and rowing, like Bree. This semester, Bree completed her student teaching while practicing every day and racing every weekend. Most college students I’ve met can barely handle one of these things, never mind both at the same time. Bree put her mind to it that she was going to do everything that she wanted to this semester and I believe that she has done a great job at both.

Every rower should be dedicated like Marissa. If you’re rigging or derigging a boat, Marissa is probably helping. If you’re launching for a race, Marissa has probably carried your oars to the dock and is about to carry your shoes away from it. She has never skipped a YOYO or missed a practice without a very legitimate reason, such as being near deathly sick. Marissa always gives 100% to practice and racing, as well as the little things (launch carrying, erg cleaning, trailer loading, boat moving and the like) that most rowers try to avoid. Without people like Marissa overseeing the details, crew teams everywhere would grind to a halt and I believe Marist is no different.

Every rower should be organized like Maggie. As co-captains, Maggie and I have had to deal with some tedious and detail oriented issues, such as ordering gear, planning formal for the men’s and women’s teams, organizing team gifts, etc. Between the two of us, we have managed to do some awesome things, things that I could not have done all by myself. Maggie is one of those people who you just know is going to be incredibly successful in her life and I would not doubt that I will see her on one of those Time Magazine People of the Year issues.

Every rower should be able to handle setbacks, like Angie. Angie had to take the first semester of our sophomore year off from college, something that would be hard for anyone, never mind a Division I athlete. She came back second semester light years behind the rest of our class in terms of technique, but with an attitude that said nothing was going to stop her from improving. She spent that spring mostly not boated, but when she came back the next year, she improved immensely, making the Varsity 8+ in the spring and having the fastest 2k in the boathouse. This year she has battled with recovering from getting her wisdom teeth removed as well as “confined” appendicitis, and her only complaint was that she couldn’t erg with the rest of us. And guess who was the stroke seat of the V8 for the spring season?  

 

My time at Marist has not just been shaped by the people who are on the team now, but almost anyone I’ve met through crew. Whether it was the seniors when we were freshmen, the alumni who I’ve met through other people, the coaches, or the freshmen on the team now, every single person has had some kind of impact on my life, whether they know it or not. Thanks for a great four years, Marist Crew!

New York State Championship Regatta

This past weekend, Marist Crew raced at the New York State Championships. Once again, our team was excited to race here because the regatta had been cancelled in 2011. We had heard that William Smith was fast this year and after our photo finish at MAACs, we were hungry for another good race. 

Our heat was the second race on Saturday morning, with fourth and sixth seeded St. Lawrence and Ithaca. We had a pretty big bobble in the middle of our power twenty that threw us off for some strokes. At the 500m, we were battling for 3^rd and 4^th with St. Lawrence and RIT but our coxswain, Zoe, was ready to put some fire into us in order to make sure we finished in the top three and qualified for finals. By 750m, we had pulled away from RIT but were still trying to shake St. Lawrence, with Ithaca in first by a decent amount. By 1500 we had about half a boat length on SLU and worked to catch up with Ithaca in our sprint. We placed 2^nd but all agreed that we knew we could race better the next day.

Because of our second place finish, we were placed in lane 4, with William Smith, Ithaca, Hamilton and St. Lawrence respectively in 1,2,3 & 6. We knew that it would be a tight race between the six crews and that we would have to have a strong race to medal.  Our coach made us look at the picture from MAACs in order to get fired up to race before we launched and we were ready to go. Our start, which is normally our weakness, was one of the best we’ve had and we were right with everyone from the beginning instead of having to come from behind. By the 500m, William Smith had a strong lead and we had moved up on St. Lawrence, Ithaca and Hamilton. We had an incredible middle move and were flying for the rest of the race. Personally, I think it was not only the best race we’ve had as a boat, but also one of the best races I’ve had in my rowing career. I was so focused and just hammered on it the entire time and after the race, my boatmates agreed that they felt the same way. 

Silver medal!

The other boats on the men’s and women’s teams also placed very well. The Men’s V8 and V4 placed second and our freshmen men won gold. Another result that is fantastic is that both of our freshmen boats made the final. Our 1F got gold and our 2F got 4^th. Obviously, the 1F winning is fantastic, but the fact that the 2F for 4^th in a tough field shows just how strong the freshmen class is and how much everyone has improved since the beginning of the year. The 2F is currently composed of all walk ons. I think this is a fantastic sign for the future of the Marist program. 

Varsity 8+ with our medals

Next weekend we will split with the men’s team as they head to Worchester, MA for ECACs and we head to Philadelphia for Dad Vails. It’s scary to realize that this is my last college race ever but I am very excited to see what the team can do.

Marist Crew at MAACs

Due to last year’s cancellation, our team was very ready to go after it at this year’s MAAC championships. We had been a strong crew last year and felt that we never got the chance to prove it. This year, with the addition of Drake and Jacksonville to the conference as well as the change in point system to NCAA rules, things were a little different than when we reaced in 2010. Previously, every boat we raced counted towards the overall points total. This year, only the 1V8, 2V8 and V4 finishes were counted towards the points total and no rowers were allowed to double up within those three events. All the other events were still held but they were considered for exhibition only (on the women’s side, the men’s side held to the same point system as always). 

The night before racing, the MAAC hosted a banquet for all the crews involved as well as the tennis teams, who also had their MAACs in Mercer County that weekend. It was awesome to see everyone on our team clean and dressed nicely, but it was also great to hear about the accomplishments of the Marist Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams. Marist Crew hauled in some pretty awesome awards, such as Men’s Coach of the Year for Sean Clarke, Women’s Varsity 8+ of the year, Men’s Varsity 8 of the year, Women’s 2V 8 of the year (for our 1F) and Men’s Varsity 4 of the Year as well as many Crew of the Week awards. On the women’s side, we also had at least 15 people named to the MAAC All-Academic team, the highest number in the conference. It was a great event (and the food was awesome). I just wish they had started the tradition earlier in my rowing career!

The next day, the races that counted for points were scheduled right after each other so we had no idea how the two boats did as we were all on the water at the same time. We locked onto our start on time, but the Jacksonville bow seat had a problem with her seat, so we waited on the stake boats for about ten minutes, swallowing our nerves and staying amped up for the race. With two unknown crews on either side of us, we were very antsy to get off the line.

I can honestly say that our V8 race was one of the most exciting races I’d ever been in. I could tell that everyone in front of me was pulling harder than they had ever pulled. We went down the course within four seats of Drake the entire time. We would take a bad stroke and they would take a couple seats. Then they would take a bad stroke and we would gain the seats back. Going into the last 400m they probably had half a boat length up on us. We hit the best sprint of our lives and took back four seats over those 400 meters, ending the race bowball to bowball. Neither crew had any idea who won. It was a perfect photo finish.

It was torture not knowing the result. We felt that we had raced to the best of our ability, we just didn’t know if it had been good enough. The Drake girls came over after we docked and we shook hands, something I thought was very gracious of them, since everyone was in the same limbo of not knowing who came out on top. We stood around, staring at each other, waiting for a result and praying that we had been first. Tom got a phone call and the minute he picked up, we could tell Drake had won the race and therefore won the championship. Although it was devastating to hear that our grade of seniors would never win a MAAC championship, we put up a great fight and had an amazing race.  Drake definitely didn’t have an easy win and if we had to lose in any fashion, I would have picked this one. I hate losing more than anyone, but I think the experience we gained as a boat was incredibly valuable.

In the exhibition events, I raced the pair and the open four. I had about an hour of rest after the eight race to eat some food, rehydrate and get my racing mentality back. Our four lineup was a little different because Tom wanted to make sure Angie, our stroke seat in the *+ and normally our three seat in the four, had completely healed from her rib injury. However, despite not rowing in our line-up ever before, we had a great race. It was in two heats, so even though we won our heat, the real winner would be based on time. We ended up winning the event overall. I raced with Angie in the pair, my favorite race, where we placed third. Unfortunately the conditions had picked up for our race and the tail wind threw up a lot of chop, not exactly fun for the pair. This, plus the fact that it was my third race of the day meant that I was in a lot of pain. Howewver, Angie is fantastic at matching up and keeping me motivated and I think we would have done much worse had she not been able to do that. We placed third and I can honestly say that I am thankful for all of those 3x2k workouts we did in winter training. 

Overall, while the result was not what we hoped for, the racing was strong and our team should be in a fantastic position for next year.