A Postcard from Camp Wolverine: Alex Spaulding
5/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
On the eve of the Big Ten Rowing Championships, senior captain Alex Spaulding shares her thoughts on the first two weeks of Camp Wolverine, the most important time of the Michigan rowing season. With two-a-day practices and plenty of recovery time in between, Camp Wolverine is a time for the team to make significant improvement on the water and have some bonding time as a team off it.
Q. How have the first two weeks of Camp Wolverine gone for the team?
Alex Spaulding: The last two weeks have been really fun. In a rowing sense, it's been going really well. We've had a ton of good practices. We've finally been stringing them together.
Q. What has it been like bonding as a team off the water?
AS: Off the water it's been really fun. We've had this water bottle assassin's game going on. Coach Rothstein tells his daughter it's called 'Gotcha,' because assassin is a bit aggressive, but people have been hiding behind dumpsters, jumping out at people as they come out of their ice bath to squirt them with water. That's been the activity that's dominated Camp Wolverine this year. There are only five people left standing, so it's starting to get pretty intense.
Q. How have you seen the team progress with added time to train and recover?
AS: I think we've made huge strides. Last week we definitely hit it hard with the workouts. We had a pretty intense first seven days of camp. We also stepped it up with recovery. We've had a ton of recovery sessions. Everything is a lot more focused. As a result of that, we've had a ton of good rows. That gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend. This is when everything is solidified, going into Big Tens.
Q. How excited are you to head to the Big Ten Rowing Championships this weekend in Indianapolis?
AS: I'm super pumped. I think this year is a little different because we have both heats and finals. We're going into a whole different Big Ten experience. We're telling our freshmen everything we can about what the experience will be like. But it's kind of interesting because of the changes this year. We can't tell them as much about the regatta as we used to be able to tell underclassmen. It's kind of fun to have that new experience because our team is so young that we're a part of it as well. It's really exciting. We've added Rutgers, but it's the same core seven teams that we're racing against every year. It's always exciting to race our rivals in Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana. It's going to be so close this year that it's just super exciting.
Communications Contact: Jeffrey Weinstein (734) 763-4423
