North Allegheny's Zachary Springer commits to Dartmouth for rowing
The prospect of an Ivy League education on a picturesque campus guided by a coach he admires has persuaded North Allegheny High School senior Zachary Springer to verbally commit to the Dartmouth College heavyweight rowing team.
Springer, 17, of Marshall plans to join the team for the 2016-17 season.
Springer, a standout on the Three Rivers Junior Rowing team on Washington's Landing, who was invited to try out for the USRowing Junior National Team earlier this year, said he was drawn to Dartmouth's campus, which is in Hanover, N.H., along the Connecticut River, which forms the border with Vermont.
“It's rural and beautiful,” he said.
He said Princeton was his second choice.
Springer, who plans to study business or economics, is eager to participate in Dartmouth's academic programs, including Sophomore Summer, in which rising juniors are on campus together, taking classes, following their sophomore years. He hopes eventually to be part of a bridge program to the Tuck School of Business, the graduate school of management, which ranks as one of the top business schools in the world.
On the rowing team, Springer is eager to be mentored by Wyatt Allen, a two-time Olympic medalist who is in his second season as Big Green head coach.
Dartmouth placed 12th at the 2015 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta after finishing 11th at the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints last spring. All five of its boats were in the top 17 in the country at the national regatta.
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Springer was one of 26 invitees to the 2015 USRowing Junior National Team Men's Sweep Selection Camp on Washington's Landing last spring and summer. He was in the fifth seat of a men's youth eight that placed 50th at the Head of the Charles Regatta.
He placed 18th among 248 competitors in the Junior Men category at the C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston last March, completing 2,000 meters on an ergometer in 6:22.
Before moving to Three Rivers Junior Rowing, he was a two-time Midwest scholastic champion on a junior varsity four competing for North Allegheny in 2013 and 2014.
Three Rivers Junior Rowing coach Steve McCarthy expects Springer to prosper in college.
“Zach is a very driven athlete (who) loves to work hard all the time,” McCarthy said. “He is constantly pushing himself and has such high standards.
“I know that is what attracted the coaches at Dartmouth when Zach visited there. He constantly has that vibe about him where he wants to (produce) all the time.”
Karen Kadilak is a freelance writer for Trib Total Media.
