Crew Returns to Competition

The Ithaca College Invitational on Saturday marks the first race of the semester for both the men’s and women’s rowing teams. After intense training during their midseason break, the teams hope to start off the spring season strong and will use this race as an indicator of where the crews stand since their last meet in the fall.
Four schools will be competing in both the men’s and women’s races. The men will face Ithaca College, Marist and Hobart College and the women will go up against Ithaca College, Marist and William Smith College.
These spring races are a departure from the types of competition the Red faced in the fall. The early races were longer distance and less intense, with the rowers using fewer strokes per minute, while this event will be mostly short, sprint-type races.
[img_assist|nid=36262|title=C is for Coxswain|desc=The crew team is back on the water after tough off season workouts. They hope to open well this weekend.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
The Invitational will require not only speed but stamina from the Red, as the teams will row in two races on Saturday. Because of limited racing lanes at the inlet, there will be two, two-team races in the morning, followed by a race between the winners in the afternoon.
The men’s heavyweight team planned to build its fitness over the midseason break and is excited to test its abilities in this opening race.
“It’s our first race going out, so we want to see where our seat is right now,” said varsity heavyweight captain Jason Malumed. “We’ve been training twice a day all through Spring Break and things are really starting to click. So now is our first chance to go up against some real competition.”
Over Winter Break, the men trained to be in the best shape possible to row this spring and grew close as a team and unit.
“We do a lot of testing pieces on the erg to see where each person is and then get everybody as fit as possible for the transition into the spring,” Malumed said.
The men’s lightweight crews have also been preparing in the offseason to come into the spring races prepared and in great shape to take on the competition.
Both men’s teams had successful fall seasons, and placed at least one boat in first or second place in the most recent Syracuse Invitational race in November. The men hope to use momentum from the fall season and translate their hard training into spring wins.
The women’s team is likewise eager to start the season off right and to see where they line up against their competition.
“There’s always a rivalry between us and Ithaca to see who the inlet champion is, and we’re excited that some other teams are coming that we don’t normally race. We are definitely taking this race seriously and we want to make sure that we are starting the season off on a good note,” varsity coxswain Caitlin Runyan said.
Marist had its first race since Spring Break last weekend, racing at Clemson. All three of Marist’s varsity women’s boats came in fourth place to the tough competition of Clemson, Purdue, and Indiana.
The competition will be a good starting point for the Red to get everything in order before beginning the increasingly competitive races.
“We want to… get our race plan down and our lineups set, as kind of a trial run for things so that next week when we race defending champions Yale and Syracuse we’re ready to go,” Runyan said.
“We’re not really sure how these things are going to pan out, but we’re really hoping that our training this year is going to start us off on a good note and we’re going to have a really strong, competitive race against these crews,” Runyan said.