Last weekend the women’s crew opened its season with its varsity eight boat defeating Dartmouth, Rhode Island and Boston College. The Huskies beat the Big Green by 1.9 seconds and beat URI and BC by much larger margins – about 18 seconds before URI and 23 seconds before BC. Captain Colleen Saville coxswains the Varsity 8 boat and has earned this week’s Northeastern News Player of the Week honors.
Saville, a 21-year-old native of Sarasota Springs, N.Y., began rowing at age 13, following in her older sister’s footsteps. She began as a rower and moved to the coxswain spot because she was the smallest girl on her rowing team.
Saville did not start her collegiate career at Northeastern, spending her freshman year at Ohio State. While there, Saville rowed for the Buckeyes. After her freshman year she decided Ohio State wasn’t the right fit for her, she said.
She was drawn to Northeastern because of the city of Boston and NU’s rowing program, she said. Her coach at Ohio State granted her a release, so she didn’t lose a year of eligibility in the transfer.
“I wanted to get back into the Northeast and probably go to school in Boston and I knew I wanted to stay with competitive Division I rowing,” Saville said. “I was able to combine both of those at Northeastern. The rowing is competitive here and the city is awesome.”
When talking about her future, Saville, a middler, breaks it up into two stages. While she said post-organized athletics are a possibility in the future, with graduation approaching, the English major is less sure she will continue with the sport, saying she would like to pursue a career in publishing or editing.
Saville said she has high hopes for her team this season, adding she thinks it will take a lot of work and dedication from the team for them to qualify for postseason races. She said they have a grasp on the work needed to qualify for the NCAA championships and they will be able to pull off reaching the postseason.
As the coxswain of the Varsity 8, Saville is one of nine people in the boat, a fact that she is quick to acknowledge. Saville said she understands that it takes a complete team effort to win a race.
“In regards to the girls I cox, I have the utmost respect for them, because, I mean, I could never day in and day out do what they do every morning,” Saville said. “So I have a lot of respect for them. We have really great chemistry and we are really gelling well. I have so much respect for the girls in my boat.”
– Nathan Vaughan,
News Correspondent
