Jaden Stainforth ’27
Staff Writer
After a grueling and gritty winter training season full of erg and indoor tank sessions, the Holy Cross Men’s and Women’s Rowing teams are finally back out on the water, ready to attack the spring 2K sprint season with vigor and authority. Both teams flew to Tampa, FL over Spring Break a few weeks ago in order to take advantage of the warmth and free-flowing waters as Lake Quinsigamond was still frozen over.
After shaking off the rust in the Florida waters, the teams have rolled into the swing of things back at the Donahue Rowing Center just a stone’s throw away from campus. With Lake Quinsigamond finally thawed, over the past week or so the teams have sent out their eight and four man boats for a variety of training sessions, from those focused on technical to those focused on power and speed.
Both teams are excited for the season ahead, having found successes last fall at their respective regattas. The men’s team achieved program bests at the famed Head of the Charles (HOCR) regatta last fall. The Second Varsity Eight clocking a program historic time of 15:11.721 and finishing 11th in the Club 8+ category, and the First Varsity Eight tied the program’s highest finish in the Collegiate 8+ category, clocking a 14:52.603 down the 3 mile course and taking home the bronze.
The Women’s team also found program record success in Boston last fall. At HOCR, the women’s teams were able to qualify two entries in back to back years (2023 & 2024) and their First Varsity Four achieved the best program finish in the Club 4+ with a 12th place finish last autumn.
At Lake Quinsigamond-hosted regattas, Wormtown Chase and Head of the Snake, both the men’s and women’s teams handedly defended Holy Cross’s home waters, walking on the competition and taking home plenty of medals. To cap off their season, the men’s team found program success AGAIN down at the Princeton Chase regatta last November.
While both teams had somewhat similar schedules for the fall, the men and women’s teams will not attend the same regattas this spring. The Women’s squad started their race season before the men did, heading down to Philadelphia, PA for the Jesuit Invitational last weekend on March 22 where all boats placed first or second in the time trials and advancing to the grand finals where they clinched either the gold or silver.
They continue their season against the University of Connecticut, Marist College, and Sacred Heart University this upcoming weekend on March 29 in Storrs, CT. Sacred Heart, Smith College, and Colgate will take a trip to Lake Quinsigamond mid April where the Women’s team will host them on April 12. The Women’s team will host UConn, Boston College, and MIT the following week on April 19. They then compete in the Women’s Sprints on May 4 in Worcester before competing in the Patriot League Championship in Pennsauken, New Jersey on the 16th of May.
The Men’s team starts off their season with a duel against MIT on Lake Quinsigamond this upcoming weekend on March 29. They then travel to Philadelphia, PA on April 12 for the Schuylkill Invitational. The men’s squad will host Boston University, Temple, and Marist the week after on April 19.
A few weeks later from May 2 through 3, they head down to Camden, NJ for the Madeira Cup before coming back to Worcester to compete in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) sponsored Eastern Sprints on May 18. If they qualify, they’ll head back down to Camden for the penultimate goal of every IRA-level team to race at the IRA National Championship held from May 30 through June 1.
Men’s team Head Coach Jim Barr has expressed excitement for the season to come, stating that while they’ll be up against some stiff competition such as MIT, Syracuse, Boston U, Yale, and others, that they’ll bring some serious force and speed.
In conversation with Holy Cross student broadcaster and The Spire co-editor-in-chief Ben Lepper ’25, Coach Barr is quoted saying, “What’s not that different is the competitors, but what is different is the horsepower underneath the hood this year.”
On the All American Rowing podcast, Men’s Captains Paul Bradley ’25 and Will Mead ’25 discussed the various challenges that the team has faced and how they’ve overcome them through developing a strong team culture focused on “leaving things better than you found it” as Mead said and on core tenets of discipline, toughness, and ownership which are inscribed on wristbands worn by the men’s squad.
Even still, they’re facing an uphill battle, having been the “first team out of the IRA national championship in the eight for three years in a row.” Bradley and Mead said that while the team’s ultimate goal is a slot at IRAs in Camden, they will approach the season race by race.
All is to race for and both squads are looking to take home some serious hardware this spring. Given the success achieved last fall, both squads seem poised for strong performances up and down the East Coast as the trees gain their leaves and the flowers start to blossom.
Featured image courtesy of @hcrosswrowing on Instagram
Copy Edited by Lily Wasmund ’28
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