Savannah is going into her fifth year of rowing, her best year yet. As many of you may have heard, she came in first a few weeks ago at the Florida Sweep States and Sculling States. Just two weeks after that she traveled to Gainesville, Georgia (yes, Georgia) where she raced in the Women’s Varsity Four and qualified for Nationals, and she did.

“If you would’ve asked me at the beginning of this season if I would be going to Nationals I probably would’ve said no,” confides Alario.

No doubt, Savannah’s dedication to training contributed to her success.

Savannah spends six days a week practicing: Monday through Friday for three hours and on Saturdays for four. But with Nationals just around the corner, training is getting much more rigorous. Savannah is now training both mornings and afternoons in order to get as fast as possible. Many of the weekends you can find her racing even though rowing isn’t a year-round sport. The typical racing season is from August through June. “Head Season” is what is in the fall; these are 5000 to 6000 meter races that are taken at a slower rate.

The crew boats don’t start lined up at a start line, but instead they have a moving start and the results are strictly base off of time instead of a side-by-side battle between other crews. “Sprint Season” is during the spring and the races are shorter being 1500 to 2000 meters, but they are rowed at a much faster pace and the boats are lined up side by side for a head to head battle for first.

“Sprint Season is what I look forward to. Not only are they much faster races but they are a lot more ‘dramatic’… they’re the races I look forward to and train for.”

“Some people don’t understand why I do it since it practically takes up all of my schedule leaving me very little time to have a social life but all the training leads to great results and if it wasn’t for crew I wouldn’t have many of my best friends I have today, its like one big family.”

If you never had the chance to see Savannah this past year, make plans to see her race this coming fall. You may just witness a star in the making!