For the past few years, the Smith College Crew team has consistently been ranking in the top ten Division III teams in the country, but this season has been one to remember. Three Smith athletes, out of a total of 18 athletes nationally, were recognized by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) as “rowers to watch”: Megan Holm ’24, Linnea Schultz ’24 and Sofia Trotta ’25. Trotta was also named the New England Women and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Coxswain of the Year, and Schultz was named NEWMAC Rower of the Year. Holm, along with teammate Anna Boden ’26, was recognized with First Team All-Conference honors. Currently, the team is ranked eighth nationally coming off a recent victory at the NEWMAC Championship on April 27. They hope to continue this momentum when they compete on the national stage.
Collegiate rowing has two distinct competition seasons: a long-distance season racing five-kilometer courses in the fall and a sprint season racing two-kilometer courses in the spring with winter strength and conditioning in the middle. The fall serves as base training and time for the team to test different line-ups, while the spring is where their big goals come to fruition.
The team is split up into various boats, with the 1st Varsity boat (1V) through 4V competing for points. Each member of the boat has a different job from setting the stroke rate to providing the force and strength of the strokes to providing data and instructions to the rest of the rowers. All of these roles come together to create the speed and unity necessary for a successful race. The boats each race in their numbered category, and their placement within that category contributes to the team score.
During competition season, the team tries to get on the water as much as possible, even if this means early morning practices to avoid poor weather. However, during the winter or if they are forced inside, you can catch the crew team in the ergometer (ERG) room, rowing in sync to their music. This also gives them a chance to row alongside teammates that aren’t typically in their boat.
The team has a roster of almost 50 athletes, with many being walk-ons or underclassmen, but the team is still able to maintain a strong community. Although training is often split up by boat, athletes move around different boats based on their progress, and the team will often have practices where crews are mixed around to practice different arrangements and test team chemistry. Winter training and strength training sessions are also more communal, allowing the team to make connections across grade levels and boats.
Rowing can be a very inaccessible sport. Many public schools do not have teams because of the cost of boats and traveling to bodies of water to compete.
Schultz said the walk-on policy is part of what makes Smith Crew so special. “It gives all of the athletes a feeling of ownership over the makeup of the team,” she said. “We’re the ones looking around the school and scouting for new people we can snatch, and then the walk-ons join the team and we have a hand in teaching them how to row.”
Trotta added that this process of learning and teaching also adds to the excitement and energy of the sport, “The thing I love about college rowing is you can walk on a team, learn how to row, and progress through the ranks. The opportunity is limitless.”
By having the funding of the Smith Athletic Department, the financial barriers of joining rowing are then removed for athletes. Holm noted how not having to pay for travel to bodies of water or pay for equipment really opens up who can access the sport. “We don’t pay out of pocket to go travel to regattas,” she said, “We’re supported by a whole department and a college, which opens up the sport to other people.”
Over a third of the team is now walk-ons, which Holm said brings new life to the team, “They just enter and they’re really excited to learn about stuff. It’s just like a fresh energy.” Schultz added that the walk-ons also bring in a more diverse set of backgrounds, both geographically and in interests, which creates a more well-rounded team culture.
Holm said that watching walk-ons progress in the sport is also very exciting, “They come in and they don’t have expectations for themselves.” However, if they put in the work, throughout the long mornings on the water and the team’s afternoon lift and ERG sessions, they can row alongside the veterans. Holm said, “It is a work sport, by definition and practice.”
“It’s what you put into it,” Trotta added, “It’s not like, ‘You’re a walk-on, you can never make the top boat — you can make the top boat.’”
As for the rest of the season, the team has secured the automatic NCAA National Championship bid through their NEWMAC win. The championship will be held from May 31 through June 1 in Bethel, Ohio. On goals for this championship, Trotta commented, “A quote from one of our coaches this week was, ‘To feel free to compete to win,’ and I feel like that encapsulates our goals really well. We’re going to show up at the rest of our regatta season competing to win, every time we go down that course.”
Schultz added, “We’ve been building for a while and we also have a lot of really young people on the team right now, who bring a lot of new speed and pizzazz and energy, so we’re shooting big.” All three said that they are planning on putting their all into the end of the season, but that no matter how it shakes out, that with all the new faces who have joined the team, they have faith that the program’s future is bright.
