In a demonstration of intercollegiate collaboration, President David Wippman, Colgate President Brian Casey and Hamilton alumnus and Colgate employee Brian Grady ’00 joined together to win HamTrek’s men’s relay competition with a time of 1:05:45. Casey swam the sprint triathlon’s 21 lengths in the pool, Wippman biked nine miles (two times around the Griffin Road loop) and Grady ran five kilometers around the cross-country course at the Friday, April 28, event.
Director of Outdoor Leadership Andrew Jillings, women’s swim team member Rene Varga ’20, and women’s hockey team member Timary Malley ’20 comprised the overall winning relay team with a time of 1:00:26. Outing Club trip leader Anna Mowat ’18, and Nordic Ski Team members Meg Riley ’17 and Olivia Box ’17 were the winning women’s relay team with a time of 01:11:26.
Riley and Box had just presented their senior theses the evening before. Box said that HamTrek offered them an opportunity to “blow off some steam” along with their teammate Anna Mowat ’18.
Professor of Literature and Creative Writing Onno Oerlemans was the top individual male with a time of 01:00:30 and Chau-Fang Lin, assistant director of institutional research, was the female winner with a time of 1:11:17.
Some teams were department specific, others more varied. Chris Willemsen, associate director of the Levitt Center, joined with Sharon Liu ’17 and Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Cameron Brick to form a team. “I like to break down silos wherever they are,” Willemsen quipped when asked how her team formed.
The math department, accustomed as it is to competitions like the recent Snow Bowl, once again assembled a team of mathematicians. Professor Sally Cockburn swam, Associate Professor Andrew Dykstra rode and Visiting Assistant Professor Dave Perkins ran.
Frankie Hearne ‘19, a member of the swim team, was soliciting sign-ups for HamTrek at the Wellness Fair when XRF Senior Lab Technician Rick Conrey walked up to the table. He learned that Frankie didn’t have a team assembled so Rick signed up to be the biking member of the team and XRF Lab Technician Laureen Wagoner joined as the runner. “I did it for grins and to get some biking in,” Conrey, who rode a recumbent bike, said.
Three seniors – Devon Brown, Silvia Radulescu and Ilana Schwartz – claimed that they were not in it to win, but just for good fun. Radulescu added that this was one event that was also on her bucket list while she was at Hamilton.
Participants were encouraged to collect donations to benefit the Shawn Grady Memorial Fund. The fund, a non-profit/tax exempt organization devoted to helping local families who have children with life-threatening illnesses, was established in memory of Shawn Grady, an outstanding athlete who was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of his sophomore year in high school.
