Tuesday, Apr 16, 2013
As the weather warmed up, so did the action among Rider’s club sports on the Lawrenceville campus.
by Aimee Simone '13
Spring weather on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus brings students outside to study, relax with friends, and even to honor the long-held tradition of tossing a Frisbee on the quad. But students of the Rider Ultimate Frisbee (RUF) club team are doing more than just tossing; they’re jumping, sliding, and diving in the fun yet competitive version of the familiar pastime.
Led by RUF president Alex Martinelli ’13, the team competes under USA Ultimate, the national governing body for “Ultimate” (as the sport is officially known; “Frisbee” is actually a registered trademark), against teams from Rutgers, The College of New Jersey and Stockton College, as well as others. The team also hosts tournaments on campus, including the annual Huck of Fools tournament. This year’s event took place during the first weekend of April and included a team of alumni players.
But the Ultimate team is just one of the many club sports keeping students active this semester.
The club baseball team is hoping to make the playoffs this year in the National Club Baseball Association under the leadership of Kevin Bordner ’13, Vinny Emanuelo ’13, Peter McClelland ’13 and Ryan Korp ’13. They believe their success comes from the combination of their group bond and determination to win.
“We have a great group of kids,” Bordner said. “We do like to have fun but when it comes to game time, we mean business.”
While the baseball team is focused on playoffs, the club volleyball team is centered on finding individual success for each of its members. The team is open to all students and the club holds open court practices throughout the semester.
“This semester we haven’t played as many matches against other schools as we usually do,” said club president Nick Wright ’13. “So, we’ve been just practicing and having fun and working on improving our skills.”
Wright encouraged students of all levels to come out, practice, and have fun with the team members.
The club swim team takes a similar approach, focusing more on fun and personal goals. Their last meet of the semester also served as a fundraiser for Enable, Inc., a local nonprofit agency devoted to supporting individuals with disabilities to live full and independent lives.
“We try to make the club as fun as possible,” said president Jeff Kless ’13. “We always have a good time at the practices and the meets, no matter what our results are.”
This spring, the equestrian club team added new members and new achievements. Thanks to an influx of freshmen, the team now boasts its all-time high in membership, with 13 continuous showing members and an additional three lessoning members. With so many new faces, the team was able to place fourth out of 10 schools in the region at the end of the showing season. The team also saw six members qualify for regionals, their largest number ever.
The equestrian team also worked together to host its first show.
“Hosting our own show took a lot of time and effort from the whole team,” said equestrian club president Kate Weindorfer ’13. “Everyone stepped up and we worked together as a team to pull it off.”