Jesuit Crew Takes on The 250k Challenge

January 12, 2021

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Over Christmas break, the crew team did not take any time away from training, although most of their training and practice had to be done on their own. Faced yet again with the challenge of separation, the team came up with a training plan to challenge rowers of all skill levels. The challenge was to complete 250,000 meters of rowing on the ergometer, a stationary rowing machine, by January 2nd. This amount of rowing is extremely challenging and takes many, many hours of dedicated time and pure focus.

This challenge required not only athletic ability but also mental fortitude and preparation. In order to successfully complete this challenge, the team members had to plan their meters in a way that would be most effective for their training. For some team members, this could entail spacing the meters out equally among the days allotted, or it could mean having high and low meter days.

Many rowers exceeded the 250,000-meter mark, such as sophomore Bo Miltenberger ’23, who completed over 400,000 meters! Additionally, senior Nik Knapp ’21 rowed over 100,000 meters in a single day! His day was broken down into several different workouts with time to refuel between sessions. For comparison sake, 100,000 meters is approximately 62 miles. In total, the team rowed for nearly a collective 5 million meters. For comparison, one could drive to New York and back and barely have traveled more than 5 million meters.

This arduous challenge came after a fall racing season with two duals against Dallas United Crew, a rival from across White Rock Lake. Separated only by a few miles, Jesuit Dallas and Dallas United Crew had the opportunity to display the speed that they picked up over the summer with two scrimmages. In the era of Covid-19, being able to race is a privilege, and both teams came ready.

In the first scrimmage on October 10, both teams agreed to row in mixed eights, which means the two boats for each team were rowed by members of the first and second varsity eights. The workout for this scrimmage was 3x1500m and 1x1k. In the first 1500m iteration, DUC started out ahead with a very high stroke rate, but they could not hold on to the lead, and they were edged out by the mixed Jesuit boat with Kevin O’Sullivan in the stroke seat. In the second and third 1500m pieces, both Jesuit boats finished ahead of the DUC eights handily. In the last 1000m race of the day, taking barely over three minutes, the Jesuit eight stroked by senior Michael Curry led the race all the way to the finish.

For the Halloween regatta, the rangers boated up into their 1v and 2v lineups as the Dallas United crews did. In the 1v race, Dallas United’s boat was severely damaged by debris in the water, and they were unable to compete after the incident. In the 2v race, Jesuit won the first two 1500s by a significant margin. However, as the day went on, the Dallas United crews managed to edge out the rangers in the last piece.

After this training block dedicated to volume, the crew team will begin preparing for its annual indoor regatta in March. The team is getting better every day at practice, and is gearing up for a successful spring season!