The St. Lawrence University men's rowing team has high hopes for their spring season, setting a goal to be faster than last year before they embark on their spring break trip to Melbourne, Fla., this weekend.
 
"This year SLU Crew has seen its biggest ever team in its history, with 52 rowers on the men's program alone," said senior captain Palchen Wangchuk. "We have more than doubled in size since I joined during my freshman year, which definitely helps the team as we have a bigger pool of guys to select the fastest lineups come race time." The team is made up of 18 first years and 14 sophomores, with six seniors at the helm.
 
"Our biggest challenge this year has been integrating the upperclassmen with the underclassmen.  Since we have such a big group of guys, we usually end up having two practice sessions so that the coaches can distribute their time efficiently among all of us.  What time we lose together during specific practices, we try to make up for by pairing up for most of our erg pieces or lifts," said Wangchuck. "The sophomores and juniors on the team are starting to take on leadership positions, while the first years are showing a lot of raw potential.  I definitely think we are on track to have a successful season."
 
Last season the Saints were Liberty League Champions for the Novice 8+ and Novice Crew of the Year and took home the bronze at the State Championships. St. Lawrence has took home Novice Crew of the Year honors for the last five years and hope to continue that streak this season. "The varsity boats will compete against some larger teams this year and hope to bring home some hardware as well," said Wangchuck.
 
The team competed in the Clarkson erg race to start off the spring season and won in both the novice men and varsity men categories. Combined with the women, they swept all categories in the erg race. "The top Novice 8 are half experience recruits and half walk on members, who were able to excel in rowing at an extraordinary rate. Tristan McCutcheon was the fastest Novice at the erg race against Clarkson," said assistant coach Francis Stripp.