Courtesy of WU crew team
What are you doing at five in the morning Monday through Saturday? Sleeping? Studying? Just getting to bed? Well, for 22 dedicated members of the Washington University Crew Club-12 men, seven women, and three coxswains-5:00 a.m. means another early-morning van ride to Creve Coeur Lake for practice.
WU crew consists of four separate squads: men’s varsity (9 members), women’s varsity (5 members), novice men (5 members) and novice women (3 members). Each squad understandably relishes its early morning practice time.
“At 4:50 I want to break my alarm,” says sophomore Ben Bridie, one of the nine members of the men’s varsity crew team.
The early mornings “are a fate that I would not wish upon my worst enemy, but once you are awake, it is not so bad,” says freshman Brandon Heller.
In spite of the fact that “the lack of sleep builds up,” says freshman Matt White, “joining Crew is the most fun thing I’ve done in college.”
Apparently, WU Crew members have a unique definition of the word “fun.” A normal day goes something like this: practice from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., then a quick doughnut break on the way back (sometimes), and finally another day of grueling WU classes. Freshman Nick Paden says that practice consists of “hopping in the bow seat and proceeding to freeze, get soaked, and be beaten for being so damned short.”
Freshman Matt White says, “I need a shower after practice and sometimes I have to run to English composition because I have too many tardies. [Then] I go through classes and try not to fall asleep.”
The rowers are motivated to keep up this strenuous program by the promise of the regattas. They live to defeat unassuming Division I rivals, and in recent weeks at meets in Oklahoma and at Creve Coeur Lake they have done just that. At the Creighton meet, the men’s varsity team grabbed first place by defeating St. Thomas University. This past weekend at home it defeated Murray State.
As the school year winds down, WU crew “kicks it up a notch,” racing in the midst of finals and then traveling to Philadelphia for the national championships in mid-May.
“Regattas consist of trying to relax while waiting for your event to be called. Everything else is pure adrenaline rush,” says Bridie.
Regattas afford WU athletes the opportunity to experience “cramped van rides and sleeping on other school’s gym floors,” says freshman Nick Paden. But at the end of the day, “There is nothing like beating up on a Division I school.”
Contact Matt at [email protected]