Varsity Rowing ended its 2024-2025 season with both the Girls’ and Boys’ first boats qualifying for nationals. However, they were not able to attend, as the team did not have sufficient notice to plan logistics.
The team is led by co-captains Lillie Dase ’26, Ellie Keum ’26, Thea Dunkel ’26, Serena Thompson ’27, Oliver Smales ’27, Mark Zhu ’26, and Tiger Mutter ’26. This year, the team hopes to send all four boys’ boats and all four girls’ boats to NEIRAs. They aim to qualify for nationals again and hope to attend, which would be the school’s first time sending a four- person boat to nationals.
The rowing season starts later compared with other spring sports, as the team must wait for the lake to melt before they can take boats out. This season, the team has only competed in one race so far against Berkshire. All of the school’s boats won, except the boys’ number one and girls’ number one boats.
This season,the team welcomes Mr. Phil Hodosy as the new head coach. Prior to Hotchkiss, Coach Hodosy led the rowing program as head coach at Suffield Academy. He rowed for four years at Saint Lawrence University after swimming throughout high school. Dase said, “The whole team is excited for Coach Hodosy to take over. He is a very involved, encouraging, and hands-on coach.”
Coach Hodosy said, “A lot of rowing is feeling uncomfortable on the Erg, working yourself to your physical max, but recognizing that with hard work comes better results at races and higher satisfaction within the team.”
The team includes 58 members. Mutter said, “Everybody shows up to practice early, is excited to be there, and goes to dinner together afterwards. We aim to have the entire team feel connected, not just the four people on the same boat. We emphasize that we are not a separate girls’ and boys’ team. It is difficult, because when we Erg, the boys and girls practice separately, but once we were able to go out on the water, we all started practicing together.” Coach Hodosy said, “There are a lot of new Preps and Lower Mids who are really fast. We are very well positioned to have a lot of success in the coming years, based on the interest of Preps and Lower Mids this year.”
Over spring break, the team traveled to Oakland, Tennessee, where they stayed in a hotel with the Naval Academy Rowing Team. They rowed twice a day for five days on Melton Hill Lake through the Atomic Rowing Center. Smales said, “We focused on honing our technique so we would be race-ready when we got back. The trip was a ton of fun. The team bonded over meals, games of cards, top golf, and many more activities. We finished our trip tired, but happy, and pumped for what the season was going to bring.”
The rowing squad’s next race is the Founders Regatta on Sunday May 3 on Lake Waramaug in Kent, CT.
