Pictured above: Coxswain Jaya Nagarajan-Swenson '22 leading the boat. Image courtesy of Len Greer.
By Gigi Picard ’22
Sports Editor
This edition’s team of the week is Mount Holyoke Rowing. The team is led by Head Coach Seth Hussey and Assistant Coach Cara Murphy. According to coxswain Jaya Nagarajan-Swenson ’22, there are currently no seniors on campus, as most graduated in December 2020.
Rowing is traditionally split with a two-month fall season and a three-month spring season. In their 2019-2020 season, the team’s final competition was on March 1, 2020, at USRowing’s CRASH-B. Sprints in Boston, Massachusetts.
Nagarajan-Swenson said that the team has been doing virtual practices two to three times a week that mainly take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Rowing is among one of many Mount Holyoke varsity teams that has returned to in-person practices. Their practice time is spent using the ergs in the Lyons Den. “Now that we’ve started in-person practices, we’ve all gotten to know a lot of the firsties — and they’ve gotten to know each other — way better, which has been tons of fun,” Nagarajan-Swenson said.
The team plans on doing more team bonding by scheduling movie nights and game activities together. According to Nagarajan-Swenson, Hussey gives the team “a fun prompt” to complete every week. Last week, teammates made secret handshakes with one another. Hussey’s prompt for this week is to create a two-minute TED talk.
The next team of the week, Mount Holyoke Lacrosse, has also returned to in-person practices.