On Saturday, April 23, the Rowan Crew Club hosted their second-annual Ergathon. This event was open to anyone who wanted to have fun and have a friendly competition. 

Rowers ranged from having quite a bit of experience to being brand new. The preparation for an event like this took a whole year, club president Sara Durante, a senior, explains. 

“We kind of plan all year because we tell everyone ahead of time, this is our big event,” Durante said. “All year long, you’re beating your time so we make everyone set their own personal goals and then my goal for them is not necessarily to beat each other, it’s to beat themselves.”

Club members and newcomers alike were having a great time finding out what their times were and competing to see who could row the fastest. Although this event happened indoors and not on boats, spirits were still high.

One rower, junior Erwin Lopez, hit his personal best of the season with a time of 3:51.

“So my times in practice were a little higher than that. So just looking at my time goes down, today was pretty nice. I really liked that,” Lopez said. “We do practice on the ergs. I think it’s a really good, not only workout but also good practice. It simulates what being on a boat is with the motions on the machine.” 

When a person won a race, they received candy. The overall winner of the 1k and 2k events received their choice of gift cards. At the end of the day, everyone was a winner for competing in a rowing simulation race and received a medal.

One of those winners was newcomer RJ Wentzell. His main objective that day was to challenge himself but ended up just having a lot of fun.

“I’m finding the event really fun.,” Wentzell said “My favorite part of the ergathon is the supportiveness of it. It’s not like a traditional competition where everybody’s fighting and no one wants anyone else to do well. It’s just a really fun competition all around. Everybody’s rooting for each other.” 

Since Rowan’s crew team is without any boats, the hope is that one day that the team will be eligible to join USRowing and will compete with other schools. For now, the club practices every week on the ergs and strives to get better.

This was a small event with large hopes for the future. Friends came together to enjoy spending time with each other while working to improve themselves. The Crew Club and its ergathon hoped to show people that rowing and getting fit is fun.

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