Maintaining mental and physical toughness can be draining, but in the eyes of team captain Camille Cole, it is the biggest key to success for the Drake University rowing team.
Rowing is a repetitive sport; each motion needs to be done together, “over and over and over again,” Cole said. Each rower has a part to play and the coxswains steer and lead them during races.
“Rowing is a really hard sport because every movement you have to take, you have to take it together. Which might seem easy, but it’s a lot harder when you go to do it,” Cole said. “To be able to go out and practice every day and then go and succeed shows that you are a really mentally and physically tough person.”
Drake University’s Division I women’s rowing team began its 2026 spring season strong with a victory sweep against Wichita State during spring break, winning all four races. The team typically competes three to four times a semester all around the country.
The Bulldogs next competed in this year’s Lubbers Cup April 4, held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The team faced Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, the University of Dayton, the University of Illinois, the University of Toledo and Northwestern University.
“Northwestern [was] definitely our toughest competition last year,” Cole said. “They beat us in [last year’s] Lubbers Cup. We saw them in a race that was later in the season, and we beat them there. They’re a tough crew, but we are too.”
The varsity four rowing crew took second-place with a final time of 10:06.87 in a 2,000-meter race. The novice four rowing crew placed third in its 2,000-meter race, with a final time of 11:04:00. Rowing head coach Charles DiSilvestro said the team did well in the Lubbers Cup, but thinks they “still have room to go.”
“Our schedule this year means we’re going to face tougher competition, and so we need to learn how to race stronger competitors as the season progresses,” DiSilvestro said in an email interview.
The team opened up last fall “in successful fashion,” Drake Athletic Communications reported Sept. 27 after the team picked up two silver medals. The team continued to place second at least once each meet that semester, but never placed first.
“I mean, everyone loses, and we’re not new to losing,” Cole said. “But you really have to leave the race and go, ‘so maybe that wasn’t our best performance, but what did we do wrong and what can we improve on for the next race?’”
This season, the team has focused on building up toughness.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve been focusing on is just the endurance and that mental toughness when you’re sort of beaten down,” Cole said.
Twenty out of 23 rowers on the team are either first-years or sophomores. Cole, a junior, attributes the team’s closeness to the upperclassmen making an effort to engage with and mentor the younger teammates.
“We were very welcoming when people joined the team, we were open to discussion,” Cole said. “We helped teach them the sport because this is a sport where all of our freshmen [are new too].”
DiSilvestro said the team learned how to mature together in the fall season.
“We have a young group, and they need[ed] to learn to come together [to become] Division I athletes,” DiSilvestro said.
The team has become close, despite their small size and age differences, according to Cole.
“Even the person that I know the least on the team, I feel like I could go up to them and have a good conversation and I know stuff about their life,” Cole said.
The team trains six to eight times a week, Monday through Saturday. Some days, the team does a double workout. As team captain, Cole says it’s been rewarding to see how the team has grown since training began in January.
“These people that were starting off, struggling with rowing and getting those motions done, are now out here winning races, rowing well and rowing together,” Cole said. “I’m glad to see that people enjoy being on this team, and they enjoy the people around them.”
The team competed in the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s championship regatta this past weekend, and is set to compete in the Mid-American Collegiate Rowing Association Championship April 26 in Indianapolis.
