Coming off a winter full of training, the Marist men’s rowing team is looking to improve their fortunes this spring season.
Last spring, the team went to the IRA National Championships, where they finished 23rd out of 32 other teams in the varsity four race. Marist had no seniors competing in the race and returned this season with a young group once again.
“We’re hungry,” said junior Liam Klemm. “I think a lot of guys are getting excited that we can win a few shirts this season and how we could put our names back on the map. If we could put that together and get a couple of coach’s poll votes…that’d be sick.”
It has been a bit of a steady rebuild for the program over the past few seasons. This process has, however, created opportunities for younger rowers to get more races under their belt in preparation for this spring.
“It’s a very young crew,” said head coach Campbell Woods. “Only five of the 30 athletes on the team are juniors and seniors, so we’re still learning a lot about how to race and how to be competitive as a group. I think this winter, we made really good progress in our training and we’ve made really good progress on the technical side.”
One of the three seniors on the roster is Axel Anderegg-Durwood; the intensity of the sport is something Anderegg-Durwood looks forward to regardless of his team’s youth.
“Most of us really just want to have a season of really competitive, close and fun racing,” said Anderegg-Durwood. “When we’re side by side going blow for blow with another full eight of rowers, that’s really the most fun we can have.”
Anderegg-Durwood holds the three-seat of the varsity eight boat. For context, the varsity eight refers to the eight rowers, each with one oar, and the coxswain who steers the boat and coordinates the rowers’ efforts.
The team has a relatively small roster in comparison to some of their competitors, but Marist’s rowers do not see that as a problem.
“We have a second varsity eight that is very competitive with the first varsity eight,” Klemm said. “And so that depth, even if it’s only 16 people deep, offers each boat to have a really great sparring partner in itself… everybody is really forcing the other boat to go faster than they did the last race.”
While having two varsity boats worth of depth helps Marist prepare to face off against their opponents, the team also benefits from other factors due to their location on the Hudson River. Weather conditions certainly are a huge factor heading into each race, so practicing on the Poughkeepsie waterfront can help Marist prepare for those circumstances.
“The Hudson can be great, but it can also be terrible,” said Anderegg-Durwood. “Dealing with adverse conditions and just getting out there even when it’s cold and windy, that gives us some psychological edge over other people who are used to having nice, rowable conditions all the time.”
Marist already had their first race on Saturday, March 28 at Trinity College, and immediately encountered such conditions. It was a rough day outside, with pouring rain and temperatures below 40 degrees. Yet Marist dealt with it and powered through the burdensome weather.
While the boat race yielded inconclusive results due to the adverse weather conditions, Woods still liked what he saw out of his squad.
“Trinity definitely demonstrated over the course of the morning that they were the faster crew, but we definitely had good moments that showed our boats were moving in the right direction,” said Woods.
With each spring season comes a few races on the schedule that stick out above the rest.
“My eyes will be pretty focused on the NIRC Regatta, which is basically our conference championship,” said Woods. “Last year we were an even smaller group than we are now and not as far along in our rebuilding process. We would like to see both of our boats at the grand final at that event, which I think is a very doable goal.”
“The eventual overarching goal that we have as an entire team is qualifying for the IRA [National Championships],” Anderegg-Durwood added.
An important part of the preseason for the program was the first-annual Marist Day of Giving. Leading up to the season, Marist Division I and club teams raised money to support their teams. Men’s rowing led the pack by raising $103,143; the money raised will bring new additions and benefits for the team, improving the overall experience for their athletes.
“The ‘Day of Giving’ was awesome,” said Woods. “Our alumni group, which we call the Red Fox Navy, has been around for about eight years now. Without that support, the team would have a really difficult time being on competitive footing and so we’re super appreciative of that group and the help that they give to the team.”
Being a Marist rower comes with a certain group mentality, one that the rowers themselves acknowledged.
“You’re a part of a really scrappy group of individuals [at Marist],” said Anderegg-Durwood. “We’re not the biggest athletes and we’re not the strongest when you look at the larger world of collegiate rowing, but we’re really just defined as a group of fierce competitive individuals.”
Over the weekend, Marist wrapped up a race against MIT on Saturday, April 6. The first varsity eight for Marist lost, while the second varsity eight won their race.
The team will now turn their attention to the Knecht Cup Regatta in Cherry Hill, N.J., where they will be racing on Saturday, April 13 and Sunday, April 14.
Edited by Luke Sassa
Photo from Marist Athletics via Stockton Photo
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