TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

This week, you host Bucknell and Colgate in your only home meet of the spring on Tonawanda Creek. Are you looking forward to having your own meet at your own home course?
It’s always exciting to race at home. A lot of the other teams get to have a bunch of home meets. For us, it’s really special to be able to have people come out and watch us because it’s pretty rare for anyone to get to see us row. We’re all pretty excited to get to race at home.

At the end of April, you travel to Eastern Michigan for the Second Annual Harvey Cup. Last year, Eastern Michigan won the cup after the races were split but the Eagles won the First Varsity Eight race. Knowing that Nan Harvey was an administrator here, how badly does the team want to take the Cup back?
That was one of our biggest disappointments last year. It’s definitely something that we want to go out this year and get back. It’s something that we feel. We want the cup at home. So, going to Eastern Michigan this year will definitely be a big race for us.

One of the biggest advantages to being a spring athlete in Buffalo is during the early weeks of the season, you get to travel a bit. This spring, you trained in South Carolina for a week. How nice was it to be out on the water and rowing without fear of a snowstorm?
Going to nice weather is always great for us because being home in the cold is never fun, dodging icebergs and stuff. South Carolina had some pretty nice weather while we were there. It was pretty exciting to get to row and bring our crew together and bring all the other crews together.

You sat in the stroke seat at the Clemson Challenge, the first meet of the spring season. What are some of your responsibilities in that position?
Being in the stroke seat, the rower’s responsibility is to set the pace for the other rowers. Basically, during the race you’re just adjusting to what you’re seeing other crews doing and making sure that your crew stays together and that you’re rowing at the right pace.

In the fall, you sat in the fifth seat and helped UB to a fourth-place finish at the Head of the Charles. What is that experience like, being in a race of 50 teams and a race that also attracts more than 100,000 spectators?
The Head of the Charles is always one of the most exciting races to go to every year because of the fact that it’s such a huge race. We prepared a lot this year for the Head of the Charles, so it was really exciting. To be surrounded by that many people for rowing is a rare experience, so it was pretty exciting.

Crew is the only sport at UB that is not a member of the Mid-American Conference because Eastern Michigan is the only other conference school that has crew as a varsity sport. While the conference format helps other teams create rivalries, have you formed any big rivalries with other crew programs?
There’s a few schools that we tend to come in contact with a lot that we go back and forth with, winning and losing. Ithaca tends to be one of the schools the past two years and Rhode Island is another one of the teams that we’ll be racing this year.

Like many of your teammates, in high school you participated in other sports (basketball and softball). When you got to college, what made you join the crew team?
I actually didn’t know a lot about crew when I came to college but I wanted to be involved in athletics, so I talked to (former assistant coach Jim Wynne) and he really convinced me to come out and join in. I really enjoyed it.

In your first year at UB, you were a part of the novice squad. What did being a part of that team, which is traditionally made up of freshmen and new rowers, teach you in preparation for your last three years on the Varsity 8?
My freshman year was a pretty unique year. Our team was fairly small and my freshman crew was a pretty special crew. We were one of the first crews at UB to really start winning a lot of races and started to show that we had a lot of potential. That really got our program going and started us in the right direction.

You’ve seen the UB athletic department grow and reach the cusp of the athletic department’s goal of winning conference championships in the past four years. How exciting has it been to be a part of UB athletics in the last few years?
The last four years that I’ve been here, it’s been really exciting to see how a lot of the teams are growing and how everyone is moving forward and definitely succeeding a lot more in what they’re doing. I know, with our team, we’re definitely growing each year and I’ve seen it with other teams at UB as well.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB athlete?
I think my favorite moment has probably been, this year, getting to know my crew better and getting to know that five of the girls in my boat are all seniors. We look back together and see how much we’ve grown as a team. We’re looking forward to the season so much and getting out there and doing what we can do in our last season here and hopefully, being really successful in that.

“The 10 Questions With…” feature is compiled by Joe Guistina.