Harvard Teams Travel on Week Off

As most students head out to warm destinations or back to their hometowns, many of the Harvard sports teams are gearing up for trips to warmer weather as well, or are dedicating time to focus on their athletics without the stress of academics.

First, the men’s and women’s crew teams will be staying in Cambridge and training for the spring season.

The teams have just finished the indoor season and began rowing outdoors on the river on Sunday.

“Many of [the crew team members] are excited about getting to row on the river,” sophomore heavyweight Courtney Diekema said. “But, the indoor season was an awesome time to build fitness.”

Even though the crew teams aren’t travelling during Spring Break, the Crimson went on a major trip to Orlando during winter break.

The teams’ trip gave Harvard an opportunity to train outdoors while most of New England was covered in snow,.

In Florida, the Harvard and Radcliffe crews were able to focus solely on rowing without the normal constraints of the school year.

“It was great to train without having to worry about [academics],” Diekema said.

The crew team has its first competition the weekend after students return from spring break on March 26 at Tulsa.

Spring break will give the team the opportunity to continue a difficult training regimen before having to gear up for competition season the following week.

The track and field team will be heading down to Houston on Sunday for a weeklong training camp.

“Spring break is a great chance to train outside and get warmed up for the outdoor season,” said senior distance runner Claire Richardson. “[The spring break trip] is also a great time to bond with the team and train without having to deal with the colder weather.”

The track and field team’s itinerary consists of a full week of training, culminating in two competitions at the end of the week at the Rice Multi Meet on March 16 and the Texas Southern Relays on March 18.

The multi-event meet will give heptathletes their first javelin competitions of the year, and the sprinters now will return to the traditional 100m and 110 meter hurdles, in contrast to the 60m sprint races during the indoor season.

The softball team is headed west, and the baseball team is headed south for their spring break training trips.

The baseball team has an 11-game road trip from March 11-20, during which the Crimson will visit Wofford, Mercer, Kennesaw State, Georgia State, and Charlotte.

The team looks for its first win after a four-game opening skid against Jacksonville State last weekend.

Harvard will face stiff competition as each of the teams they will be matching up against boasts a winning record.

The softball team will head to the west coast for its Spring Break, visiting Riverside for the UCR Tournament from March 11-13 and the San Diego Classic II from March 17-19.

The squad travelled to Boca Raton, Fl., for its opening tournament at Florida Atlantic.

The softball team is looking to build on their 3-2 start last weekend and will head to St. Louis, which should provide tough competition for the Crimson.

The Billikens are riding an 11-4 start and went undefeated in the Magic City Classic.

Even though this spring break will not be filled with classes, the Harvard athletic teams will have a busy workload with competition throughout the break.