Laf Club Spotlight: Lafayette Crew Team
Before there was Pardee Hall, or a Leopard mascot, there was the Lafayette crew team.
Known then as the Lafayette Navy, rowers hit the Delaware River for the first time in 1870. Without a formal collegiate affiliation until 1880, students had to spend their own money on the group’s first boat, “Nettle.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, as they quickly faced a lack of funding and space. As early as 1873, an article in The Lafayette noted that the group’s boats had been “housed for over a year for lack of accommodations.”
The current iteration of the crew team was born in 1970 under similarly unfavorable circumstances. Members bought a boat that had been rejected by a local high school and stored it everywhere from fraternities to a nearby car dealership. The team didn’t enter its first competition until seven years later.
Today, the team competes alongside Division I programs and brings home medals from races of the highest caliber. Last season, the women’s varsity boat earned silver at both the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the largest in the country, and the Knecht Cup, and the men’s varsity boat earned first place in the varsity club category at the Jefferson Dad Vail finals.
“I think of crew as the ultimate team sport,” says Peyton Schreiber ’26, this year’s team president. “Every single stroke, people in your boat are relying on you and you’re relying on them to be on time.” This reliance, Schreiber says, builds a deep level of commitment among team members. They’re up at 6 a.m. pulling their boats into the Lehigh River for practice, then back again after class. Some years, seniors have to miss Commencement, planning their own ceremony on a different date in order to attend national competitions.
“We’re just competitive people, and we’re all in sync with each other,” Schreiber says. “It’s just you and your teammates out there on the water.”
