Ready, All Row!

The Pacific rowing team sits around a table in the UC devouring dinner after practice. Though it may be nearly eight, the rowers still maintain high energy, chatting about the “2ks” they just completed, 2000 meters, or two kilometers being a standard “sprint” race length.

   The team, composed of 13 players, not including the two coaches, has been back nearly a month for in person practice. In the upcoming two weeks, prior to their first appearance at the Oregon Small College Regatta at Henry Haag lake, the team has been putting in maximum effort in their practices to ensure their victory. 

   Even though they have only just enough players, freshman rower Ari Ghazzagh ensures that, “we are in a very good starting position for the season.” Having just completed their first 2k, the team feels confident in their ability to compete against their rivals. “We’ve been doing yoga on top of erging and weight lifting,” mentions rower Kaesha Purdy, suggesting that it’s helping the team not just with strength, but also cohesion.

   “She wants us to have friendly competition that gets us kind of psyched and at the same time get to know each other,” mentions Isabella Mclver, describing the motivations of the coach. The rowers may keep in good spirits off and on the water, but the spring season has certainly been a test of patience. Six days a week they have practice, homework assignments and study hall. Yet despite this jam-packed schedule, they maintain the highest GPA average out of all the other sports teams. “We maintain a 3.8 GPA and yes, it can be hard, but study hall helps,” shares Kamryn Spooner. 

   The team shares their excitement for the upcoming season and even more importantly, regatta. To prepare for the regatta Ava Gardner says, “We’ll do a steady state and then at the end we’ll do some more high intensity sprints, so you’ll have a good aerobic base, and then you can switch into the anaerobic.” This high intensity workout regime has been getting the rowers into prime condition for their regatta.

   “We don’t ask for much, just only support us at our regatta,” says Garner. The upcoming regatta takes place at Henry Hagg on March 15.

This story was originally published in the Pacific Index, Pacific University's student newspaper. Used with permission.