Spring Break 2016

On Saturday, March 19, the team boarded a bus to head down to Gainesville, GA for our annual week-long spring break training camp. Even though the good weather had allowed us to get onto the water earlier than expected, a week in warmer Gainesville away from the distractions at school is the perfect way to start training for spring racing.All in all, we managed to squeeze in about 125-150k meters over the course of the week, breaking up into the four main squads we'll be racing at ACRA - the men's varsity 8, the men's novice 8, the women's varsity 8, and the women's Novice 8.The week had many highlights, in particular a 4x1k race against DePaul and Colby, who were training there at the same time. Additionally, this year marked the first Illini Henley, a round-robin 8x500 race that capped off Winter Training by pitting 4 mixed sub-teams against each other. The 4 teams, captained by the 8 seniors on the team, were each assigned points throughout the winter based on workout performance and attendance. The 4 teams were neck and neck coming into Spring Break, so the victory was anyone's to take.The overall winner of the event was  Different Strokes for Different Boats, headed by senior Mike Lyons, though the points winner went to Raining Diamonds, a team headed by women's Team President and VP Kat Rains and Lizzie Diamond. The remaining teams, Quad Squad and the Miami Dolphins, fought it out for 3rd place. The Miami Dolphins, pulling a shocking 0-6 record for the first 6 500m pieces, managed to pull out double victories over Quad Squad in the final 2 500m pieces, putting them over Quad Squad for the event. All in all, it was a perfect way to prep for the upcoming dual against Vanderbilt this weekend.