Freshmen Rowers Adapt to College Life at Syracuse
4/27/2005 1:05:16 PM | Women's Rowing
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – For a Syracuse freshman on the women’s rowing team, it’s more than taking notes and tests, it is knowing what a grueling 5:30 a.m. training session is and, for some, it is learning an entirely new sport.
This year the women’s rowing team traveled to Florida for training in January and in March, but it was not to celebrate college life and enjoy ‘Spring Break,’ it was to endure an exhausting week of training. The SU freshmen experienced their first taste of winter training and now they know what to expect.
“Winter training was a lot of hard work,” freshman Lauren Piro said. “I just wanted it to be over, but now that I look back at it, I feel like I really accomplished a lot by doing all of those workouts.” Piro was recruited out of Saratoga Springs High School and has moved from the novice eight boat to the varsity four “A” boat during this season.
Piro’s teammate freshman Erica Mahon, a native of Niantic, Conn., also made the move from the novice eight to the varsity four “A” and she went to winter training not knowing what to expect.
“For someone who has never been through winter training, it can be intimidating at first,” Mahon said. “Once you realize you are not going to die, it is fun to go for it and to rise to the challenges your coaches and teammates set.”
Freshman Katie Adamczak also had the mystery of winter training, but she also had the daunting task of learning a new sport. Adamczak and SU’s other walk-ons challenged themselves to learn the sport which has become a lifestyle for many and they have embraced it.
“I never had the opportunity to row before, so having the chance to walk-on to a division I women’s rowing team was something I was not about to pass up,” Adamczak said. “I love the girls I have met and the friends I have made. It amazes me at how far I have come in a sport that I knew nothing about before this year.”
The Orange freshmen and the rest of the SU women’s rowing team takes on UMass and Villanova this Saturday, April 30 on Onondaga Lake. This last home race for the Orange and the final preparation for the Eastern Sprints on May 15 in Camden, N.J.
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