STORY BY ASHLEY BEALL

Last Saturday, the crew team faced Creighton in the 22nd annual head dual.

After losing last year, I’m proud to say we won and brought the trophy back to where it belongs.

Saturday didn’t start off as the greatest of days. We had bad weather conditions and were forced to change the format of our race.

With the windy conditions, the coaches deemed the planned race course unsafe.

So, instead, we did the 500-meter races on a straight stretch of the river.

Each race was about one to two minutes long, whereas we were supposed to race 1,500-meter races, which are typically six to eight minutes.

We hadn’t been training for this short of a race so it threw us for a bit of a loop.

The format of the head dual is as follows. Each team fills three boats to race head-to-head, the varsity four, the second varsity eight and the varsity eight boats.

Each boat earns a certain amount of points based on its finish, and those amounts add up to find out which team wins.

Our varsity four and second varsity eight boats lost, while our varsity eight was able to pull out a victory.

It was kind of a whirlwind of a day.

But, I’m thrilled we were able to beat Creighton and overcome the challenges that were thrown at us.

The Creighton dual was the last race of our fall season, and we are now headed into the indoor season.

Indoor season usually consists of grueling practices where we erg row, run, do yoga and complete different types of training circuits.

The indoor season makes you wish you were outside in the freezing cold rowing, rather than being stuck inside training.

I’m going to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of indoor season.

I often leave practice walking like an old lady, but this pain will eventually be worth it.

That’s what I have to keep reminding myself.

We face Creighton again in the spring, but this time on its river.

We were able to pull away with an overall victory this time, and I want to make sure that happens again next time.

My boat wasn’t able to beat Creighton’s, and I want to change that for the spring season.

Working hard through this indoor season will hopefully do just that.

I’m not entirely sure what our coach has planned for us these next two weeks, but I’m sure after the initial pain and soreness, I’ll appreciate how it has pushed me to become better and stronger.

For now, we can only hope, right?