Rowing
The rowing team traveled to Clemson, South Carolina for a two-week spring training trip. We took a bus down, leaving on Saturday, March 12 in the middle of a snowstorm. This storm delayed our trip so that the entire bus ride took over 20 hours. We finally arrived around 5:00 a.m. Once we arrived, we rigged our boats and went out for a short technical practice in the afternoon. We had roughly two practices a day for two weeks. The morning practice started at 8:00 a.m. and the afternoon practice started between 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Our first few practices focused on technical work so rowers and coxswains could adjust to water practices after several months on land. After the first few days, the training regime picked up, and we began to do harder sprint pieces mixed with technical days. For example, we did broken 2Ks, where we race 1000 m, paddle for 500 m and race the last 500 m. Both the men’s and women’s teams scrimmaged against Marist in the first week doing 2 broken 2Ks. We also did 400 m sprints several times during the two weeks. Through examining these practices, our coaches began to make race lineups which were generally set for the second week of practice. A few of our practice days were canceled due to poor weather conditions, but we were still able to make the most of our 14-day training trip. I think Clemson was a nice training location and has several different water ways for technical practices and two buoyed 2000 m racecourses. We returned to campus on Saturday morning arriving around 2:00 a.m., as we thankfully did not encounter another snow storm. ~ Samantha Brown ’22
Softball
The softball team had a great spring break trip, both on and off the field. We went 10–2, including wins over Colby and Tufts, who are ranked #10 in the nation. We also got to spend a lot of time hanging out by the pool, seeing family and enjoying the warm weather. Some Hamilton softball alumni also came to watch a few of the games, and it was super fun to catch up with them. Another highlight was getting Twistee Treat ice cream after securing two wins, including an extra-innings walk off. ~ Samantha Smith ’23
