Whitman’s women’s ultimate frisbee team made a statement in Wisconsin the week after many of their seniors walked across stage wearing caps and gowns. By finishing 13^th at the Division I national tournament, the team asserted themselves as a team worthy of greater recognition on a national scale, as well as on their own campus, where they have long been overshadowed by the men’s team’s success.

The Lady Sweets fought their way into the national tournament despite a year riddled with injuries, and walked out of the tournament six spots closer to a national title than when they entered.

“It sounds really cliché, but the Lady Sweets going to D1 Nationals was definitely a dream come true. Especially being a D3 school and knowing that absolutely no one else in the ultimate community had high expectations for our team to make it anywhere,” said rising sophomore Ari Lozano.

The men’s team, which has had greater success on the national stage in recent years, was one game from their own run at a national title. Despite their disappointing end to the season, the men came out in full support of the women through watching and even providing coaching for the Lady Sweets on the path to their successful finish. The Sweets’ communal success reveals that the two teams are truly part of the same program and feed off of each other’s successes.

“I think we are just excited that now we are a full program (men’s and women’s) that can compete as the highest level. Hopefully soon both teams will be at nationals, that would be a huge accomplishment for our program,” said alumna Kelly Hall ’13.

While the national recognition behooves both Whitman teams, it is the women who made the largest strides this year.

“As far as recognition nationally, the girls have definitely matched, if not exceeded, the boys’ level of success,” said alumna Beth Daviess ’13, the Lady Sweets’ captain.

Daviess sees the women’s success as a window into greater expansion of the program, allowing growth for both the men’s and women’s teams.

“We tied for 13th at Nationals, breaking our seed by six spots and I think we have the chance of doing better next year. I’m not sure if there is a shared spotlight [on campus]. I think both we and the boys will have to prove that we can make it back, and that our years at nationals weren’t just flukes,” said Daviess.

The growth of the women’s team is best illustrated in its graduating class. The team thrived off of senior leadership this year, but the team’s veteran players were driven by their memory of their early struggles as a team.

“My freshman year we could barely get 14 people at practice to have a scrimmage,” said Hall, adding, “This is by far the most successful year in the team’s history.”

Though this year’s seniors have already crossed over to the realm of alumni, they have paved the way for a young team poised to build off of its run at nationals.

“I’m really excited for next season, I know making another appearance at Nationals will be one of our goals,” said Lozano, who will be a team captain in the fall.

After two tough losses in a doubleheader last Saturday, April, 29 against Whitworth University, Whitman Baseball bounced back with a dominating performance in what marked a very successful final home game for the graduating seniors.

In the 9-0 win, two senior pitchers combined for the team’s second shutout of the year. Seniors Justin Weeks and Tyler Grisdale combined for the effort, both of whom have played all four years at Whitman. Weeks went eight innings to set up Grisdale for an emphatic last inning. Grisdale shut the door on the Pirates.

The offense gave the pitchers more than enough run support in an offensive outburst. Infielder, senior Chris Andrews notched his first three hit game of the year, and added two RBIs to a performance that was backed by good hitting up and down the Missionary lineup. Leadoff hitter, junior Kyle Buckham also added three hits to raise his average to .317 on the year. Shortstop, junior Cam Young, who ranks among the top hitters in the conference with a .387 batting average, got two hits and a run scored. Jimmy Madden had a pair of doubles and RBIs for the Missionaries in a historic game.

The win for the Missionaries marked the highest win total in program history, surpassing teams from the early 2000s. The milestone is a great feat for the Missionary team that has struggled in recent years, and is a testament to the change Interim Head Baseball Coach Sean Kinney has brought to the program. Still, the team has room for improvement looking ahead to next year.

Next week the team will play two exhibition games against conference opponents in Seattle and Tacoma. The exhibitions were programmed to add games to the Missionary schedule to strengthen the team and also to prepare them for the playoffs—if they make it. The Whitman program now expects success and has shown flashes of dominance in a 36 game season so far. If Whitman can put it all together next year, they can and will be competing for a conference championship and ticket to the postseason.

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After seven consecutive weekends playing conference opponents, Whitman baseball had a bye this weekend. Rather than using the break to catch up on sleep and schoolwork, the team flew down to California to take two games from out-of-conference University of Redlands in a doubleheader.

Although it was a lot of travel for a two-game series, the team felt it was necessary to find a chance to get in as many games as possible.

Pitcher and Justin Weeks ’13 refocuses after a fast pitch during practice. Photos by Susie Krikava.

“With such a strict limit on number of games played, scheduling a series in an off-week allows us to reach the maximum 40 games played. Also, it would be a waste to take a weekend off during the end of the season when the weather gets nice,” said senior Chris Andrews.

University of Redlands, which plays in the strong SCIAC conference, gave Whitman a taste of strong competition before heading into a league series against a struggling Whitworth team.

“By scheduling quality opponents from other conferences, it allows us to compete and gain experience on a weekend that we would not be able to get game experience, and that is what it is all about at this level,” said junior Cameron Young.

Obviously winning two games bolsters the team’s record and puts them within reach of a .500 finish. The team put up strong offensive efforts and two pitchers, junior Sterling Spilinek and senior Tyler Grisdale, earned their first collegiate wins in the weekend effort. Just as importantly as what went well, the team saw what it needed to work on to finish out the season strong.

“It is important we fine-tune our pitching and fielding, but I think hitting is the most important thing. Whitworth has suffered some key injuries this year but they are a tough team and are definitely going to come ready to play. I’m confident we can play right with them,” said senior Justin Weeks.

Beyond exposure of skills, the trip provided the opportunity for a more intangible growth. Due to a scheduling blunder, the team’s Saturday games were canceled, which took away a chance for more in-game experience, but also provided needed time to come together as a team.

Catcher Jonny Lari ’14 with glove at the ready prepares to catch the ball.

“We got the chance to go to a Major League Baseball game. While we did get in a practice that morning, watching the game was a great reminder that we all came to California over a love of the game, and I think that realization brought us together as a team and gave us the refreshing break we needed,” said Andrews.

With several players hailing from Southern California, the trip also allowed players to see their families, one of which opened its home to the team for a Saturday dinner.

“We headed over to Jimmy’s parents where they provided a nice home-cooked meal. I think everyone enjoyed the pool as well as the Huntington Beach sunshine,” said Young.

The road trip was a positive on every level for Whitman, but the team expects to buckle down for two more weeks of hard-nosed baseball.

“Taking two in California allowed us to gain some momentum as we move forward to this weekend’s series against Whitworth. From my understanding, it gives us a shot to have the most wins in the program’s history since moving to DIII if we win out. That is a great incentive to come and push each other each day this week; we may be out of playoff contention, but we have a chance to put our names down in the record books and do what most of us came here for: to turn this program around into something that Whitman students can be proud of,” said Young.

Seattle is a sad sports city. No, it isn’t hopelessly doomed to horrendous teams in every sport like Cleveland, but that is precisely what makes me sympathetic to Seattle sports fans. They are hopeful. Hopeful enough to expect an undersized rookie quarterback to take a good-not-great football team to the Super Bowl. Hopeful enough to try to buy basketball season tickets as soon as rumors of the return of the SuperSonics began to circulate. Hopeful enough to root for the MLS.

Seattle fans want so badly to be a great sports city like Boston, New York and, in recent years, San Francisco. While the fans’ struggles are almost admirable in a sad sort of way, their anxiousness to be great is dooming them for the mediocrity they despise being associated with.

Any Seattle Mariners fan you talk to will take pleasure in reminding you of the early 2000s when the team thrived with a newly inked Ichiro Suzuki and cast of strong role players. For the last decade, the Mariners’ organization has fought tirelessly to return to that glory without avail. They have brought in stars and big contracts with optimism for success, but have lived and died (but mostly died) by the successes and failures of big name players.

The Mariners’ front office is desperate to appease their frustrated fan base. They always bring in exciting new faces, bring back old favorites like Junior Griffey and Raúl Ibañez, and even changed their stadium to try to remedy their struggles.

But that isn’t how baseball works.

If you look at the teams that have been successful in the last decade—the Yankees and Red Sox in the early 2000s or the Giants and Rangers in the past four years—they have a general philosophy and constants that ground them in success. The Red Sox and Yankees constantly make big free agent signings, but build around a core of franchise players like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. The Mariners have tried to build teams from the top down, bringing in star talent to fill their biggest roles, when they should be building the team up from homegrown talent, using free agency to push the team from good to great, not from medium to medium-plus-Beltré.

Building from homegrown talent allows you to play to your organization’s strengths. The Giants stocked up on young pitching toward the end of the Bonds Era. In the last five years they have emerged as a top team thriving off of a stellar pitching staff. They have not made big name signings because pitching can be developed and big bats don’t make a lot of noise in the windy AT&T Park. Their sexy blockbuster move to help the team on their World Series run last year was journeyman second baseman Marco Scutaro. Sure, fans would have loved to see them bring in a big bat to stand at first base, but that isn’t how the Giants win games.

The Mariners’ organization has great young talent and a deep minor league system, but it has too many moving pieces to establish itself as a team with the sustainable success its city deserves.

Why move the fences in when you could have speedsters Michael Saunders and Franklin Gutiérrez chasing down balls to provide defense for your young crop of pitchers? Why bring in defensive liabilities in Morse and Bay to hit 20 solo home runs each and take up a lineup spot for younger players? It is clear that Seattle fans want and expect big things from the Mariners immediately, but the Mariners simply need patience.

Great pitching depth and young talent behind the plate and up the middle could mean success for the next decade in Seattle. In order to develop into the perennial division champions they want to be, though, the Mariners need to allow players to develop within a system rather than trying frantically to compete with much more developed Anaheim, Texas and Oakland teams in the short term.

Seattle fans are loyal and optimistic, but if you think this is the Mariners’ year, you are only echoing the desperate mentality that doomed your team to a decade of mediocrity. It probably won’t be a good year for Seattle, but if fans aren’t patient enough to see things through without demanding trades and signings halfway through the year, there won’t be many good years to come.

After Allen Stone came to campus, students were left with a lot of questions about the Whitman Events Board (WEB).

“Why are we wasting money on ‘blue-eyed soul singers’? Isn’t that racist?” asked ColorBlind on Whitman Encounters.

After asking the student body what sort of events they would rather WEB put on, it became clear that the students had a very … distinct vision.

“MACKLEMORE!!!” shouted a group of Kappas.

Other students agreed.

“I don’t care if we have to raise tuition; it’s Macklemore. He’s from Seattle. I have friends from there,” said first-year Cam Srosby.

Srosby, despite not actually being from Seattle, feels like Macklemore’s music really speaks to him.

“’Thrift Shop’ was definitely probably about me at the ’80s dance. I bought my clothes at a thrift shop,” said Srosby, wearing a Wa-Hi JV Track and Field t-shirt.

WEB has given in to student requests and spent all of its funding, and the Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) is contributing, too. The Board of Trustees is also considering selling half of their stocks in oil companies to book Macklemore at Reid Coffeehouse until 2018.

“The students of Whitman should really manage all of Whitman’s money because even though they don’t understand finances, they understand what they want. It’s Macklemore. They want Macklemore,” said trustee Max Wallace.

Macklemore will be coming to Walla Walla in the fall as a new addition to his tour for his new top-selling CD, The Heist.

“I’m totally going to get him to sign my Mariners hat,” said senior Matt Rickulate, who has withdrawn from his last semester to be present for Macklemore’s concert next year.

Illustration by Marlee Raible

He might need to act fast on getting tickets, because they are selling like hotcakes that give you access to Reid Campus Center’s 30-person venue. Students have already begun camping outside of Reid to get one of the 30 tickets. Although the tickets don’t go on sale, the students are confident that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I have seen Macklemore live, like, eight times. But I have never seen him live in the fall of 2013, right? I’d be crazy not to,” said Stu Pidass, a sophomore bundled up in quilts on the back patio.

Pidass is not alone camping out. There are literally 16 people. Figuratively, there are hundreds. The faces poking from bundles each tell a unique story, like the prospective student who came for Spring Visitors’ Day from his high school in Seattle and heard about the concert on a tour.

Even some faculty members are anxiously awaiting the tickets.

“My wife left me when I said I was going to sleep my way into a concert, but at least I have my job,” said a tenured professor of Italian studies from under a picnic table.

Perhaps the most surprising face, though, was a mop-haired, glasses-wearing, blonde hipster of a man who has taken to playing music for the Hooverville gathered outside the campus center.

“I was unaware Macklemore would be gracing us with his presence. I heard someone say so while I was visiting and I got a contact high. I thought, let’s celebrate tonight, and came back here to play some soulful jams. I can’t wait for Macklemore to come; I can barely sleep in this bed I made. Can’t wait to hear some ‘blonde-haired rap,’ as I like to call it,” said the man.

Saturday morning, the Whitman Women’s Tennis team took to the courts against Pacific University. By the afternoon, the men’s team took over and completed a hugely successful day for the tennis program as a whole. Together, the men and women swept Pacific’s team 18-0.

The women’s team, ranked 16th nationally, won each of their nine individual matches to improve to 12-3 on the season and remain undefeated in conference.

Maddy Webster ’15 (left) and Morgan Lawless ’15 strategize between points. Whitman women beat Pacific 9-0 at Saturday’s match. Photos by Halley McCormick.

The day got off to an impressive start with each doubles team winning handily. First-years Kate Rubinstein and Katrina Allick took down their opponents 8-1 before senior Alyssa Roberg and sophomore Courtney Lawless followed with an 8-2 victory. Sophomores Morgan Lawless and Maddy Webster rounded out the doubles stage with an 8-4 win.

The team carried the momentum from its doubles victories into dominant singles play. Even after the team’s victory had been clinched, first-year Jenna Dobrin fought back from a tough first set to complete the sweep. After losing 4-6, Dobrin overcame her opponent 6-2 and 10-5.

The men’ team, ranked 15th in the nation, continued their conference dominance by rolling to a 9-0 team victory highlighted by dominant individual performances top to bottom.

James Rivers ’15 hits a backhand toward a Boxer opponent. This was Rivers’ first appearance in match play after an injury earlier in the season. Whitman men beat Pacific University 9-0 at Saturday’s match.

The doubles stage of competition was showed the program’s depth and development, with wins by pairs of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Seniors Matt Tesmond and Sam Sadeghi overcame a rough start to win 8-6 against Pacific’s top doubles team. Juniors Any Riggs and Steven Roston followed suit with an 8-1 win against Pacific’s number two team. Sophomores Colton Malesovas and James Rivers made quick work of the number three doubles with an 8-2 victory.

Whitman’s men then went on to win all six singles matches including 6-2,6-3 and 6-1, 6-1 victories from Will Huskey and Alex Noyes, respectively. Huskey and Noyes were dominant in the number five and six games, finishing up a strong the day.

Next weekend both teams will look to maintain their success in conference by taking on the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University.

Skeptics of the 2013 Whitman Sweets will point to the void of leadership and star power after graduating a strong class last spring. That is where Jacob Janin comes in.

Besides being a star player, Jacob Janin ’13 also serves as the team’s coach. Photos by Brennan Johnson.

Janin, a senior, is one of the team captains and brings extensive experience at high levels of club Ultimate. While the Eugene native has played for the Portland Rhino club team for years, he was given the chance to play against them last summer while touring with a collegiate all-star team called NexGen. With NexGen, Janin was able to compete with his top collegiate competition while touring the nation to play club teams.

“One of the things that I took from it that I have tried to bring to the Sweets is the importance of being a selfless player. On an all-star team like that, everyone is so good that at times it can be hard to work together … What was evident was that no matter how talented you are, if you don’t work together and trust each other and your system, you aren’t going to be very good as a team,” said Janin.

This year, more than any in recent memory, Whitman has really had to rely on selfless teamwork to overcome the serious depletion of their roster last May that did not go unnoticed on the national stage.

“A lot of people expected us to be a much weaker team this year after graduating such a talented senior class. Because of that we didn’t get invited to any of the elite level tournaments,” said Janin.

In order to make a splash nationally, Whitman had to claw and scratch its way into the Stanford Invite by winning the Stanford Open in February. Once Whitman got their foot in the door, they turned a lot of heads and, in doing so, showed the nation’s top Ultimate teams that Whitman deserves to be named alongside them.

No moment captured Whitman’s sense of belonging better than when the team rallied to defeat a top-ranked Wisconsin Hodag team that was undefeated leading up to the game. Although the Sweets are often depicted as an underdog in matchups against schools 10 times as large as Whitman, Janin maintains that their success is not a surprise.

“We were only more of an underdog this year because those expectations were even lower. Being an underdog, however, is contingent on continually losing games. Even though we are such a small team, we win enough games that I don’t really consider us underdogs unless we’re playing the very best teams,” said Janin.

One team Whitman seems to always be playing the underdog against is University of Oregon’s “Ego,” whom Janin knows quite well. Janin’s brother and father have both played Ultimate for the University of Oregon and his father is now the coach of the perennial national championship contenders. Although it maintains a friendly rivalry, Ego has been a tough team to match up with for Whitman, who hasn’t beat the team in over five years.

“The only time we have beaten them was back in 2007, I think. We have been really close the last two years but still haven’t won a game since then,” said Janin. At the start of the spring, Whitman lost an intense scrimmage to Ego in Eugene, Ore. on the final point.

Oregon has shown countless times this spring that the Sweets have the potential to hang with high levels of competition, but they will have to do more than hang around to make it to the national tournament this year. The path to nationals is difficult and mandates that Whitman establish itself as a top regional team.

“Some of it depends on how many bids to nationals our region gets. Most of it depends on how focused we are over the next few weeks and whether or not we can be smart and consistent when it counts. We can’t afford to be satisfied with where we are right now,” said Janin.

Whether they make nationals or not, the end of this year for the Sweets will mark the end of Janin’s Frisbee career at the collegiate level, after which he plans to return to playing for Portland Rhino.

“I haven’t really had an off-season in a while. This will be my second year in a row of playing college, NexGen and club in succession. So in general when I have time in between I just rest. When I do have a big chunk of time off I hit the gym and try to put on weight,” said Janin.

Two pieces of memorabilia from Jacob’s Frisbee career: a bag from Nexgen (a college all-star team) and a warm-up from Portland’s club team Rhino.

Although the newly formed Major League Ultimate (MLU) has numerous teams that would be interested in inking Janin into their semi-professional rosters, Janin is skeptical of the league’s new take on his sport.

“I don’t mind the semi-pro model for Ultimate but MLU has taken the approach of tying to cater to people who don’t know anything about Ultimate. They’ve arbitrarily put Ultimate on a football field, added yardage penalties, a shot clock and refs. That’s not Ultimate to me,” said Janin.

The growth of the sport is always a contentious issue because of the heavy tradition and community Janin has been immersed in since middle school.

Janin’s car sports two frisbee stickers: the Nexgen “X” and a USA Ultimate “Play Ultimate” sticker.

“As its popularity continues to grow, media coverage will increase and it will become more and more profitable. NexGen was actually one of the first to start that. I think that is inevitable and I have no problem with that. I just don’t think we have to conform [to] other people’s expectations in order to do it,” said Janin.

Regardless of the direction Ultimate takes for Janin, he will always have his place at Whitman, where, like most alumni, he plans on returning to rich traditions like Onion Fest to check up on the program he has helped shape in his four years as a Sweet.

“I will most definitely be back in years to come,” said Janin.

Tabor Martinsen is a frequent writer for the Backpage known for outrageous lists and numerical rankings of silly concepts. To further thrust young Tabor into the humor spotlight, I have compiled a numbered list of his articles and joined in the Taboring fun!

1. 5 Reasons Why Whitman is Turning into North Korea. Five reasons I love this: 1) North Korea and Whitman are obviously NOT the same … right? I mean, one’s a city-state in Eastern Europe and the other is a famous poet. 2) The dining hall food IS bad. Have you been reading my diary, Taby Baby? That would totally be him. 3) George Bridges isn’t a dictator, but if he were, Tabor would probably get decapitated. Edgy. Classic. 4) Conspiracy theories. I love them. Does Cordiner Hall even exist? Does anyone read this stuff? 5) Teletubbies reference. When was the last time you watched that show? With the baby as a sun. Babies aren’t stars—they are just babies, silly!

2. Top 3 Overused Phrases at Whitman. Top three things I learned from this article: 1) The Backpage puzzles are always cryptic. Thht’s si Whitte? Is this Spanish? Did someone misspell “white”? Is that racist? 2) Tabor has received way too many partially-used gift cards. Is that even a thing? And Flo Rida? How about a spoiler alert? 3) Someone please hang out with Tabor. 99 people didn’t.

3. New Year’s Resolutions. My resolutions after reading it: 1) Find a way to incorporate Drake lyrics, Tebowing, Pinterest and jaywalking into every lede, regardless of the article. 2) Unimagine Tabor saying, “Oooh, that feels nice” at TSA checkpoints. 3) Help Tabor in his quest to get famous. You’re welcome for the publicity, bud. Anything to keep you from sleeping with John Mayer. 4) Wake Tabor up for class. Is he really sleeping through all of his classes? Someone is paying a lot of money for this education. Should we alert the Dean?  5) Make better resolutions than Tabor. “Start working on a plan”?!!! What’s your resolution for 2013 going to be, “Start planning to execute plan”?

While most varsity athletes spend the offseason preparing for the next year, things are a bit different for senior Tyler Mejosnik. Mejosnik was a member of the cross-country team for each of his four years at Whitman, and doesn’t really know what to do with himself now that it’s over.

While most of his teammates have been going through running workouts to prepare for the fall, Mejosnik has been trying his unathletic hands at more traditional sports.

“I’m not very good at hitting baseballs, shooting basketball or throwing a goddamn Frisbee, but I am in pretty good shape,” Mejosnik confessed.

The decision to try traditional sports requiring coordination and fundamental fine tuning Mejosnik severely lacks came from a revelation he had while running along Mill Creek.

“Most athletes spend their time running to get in shape for their sports, but what have I been running for?” Mejosnik asked himself.

Mejosnik has been trying out sports to figure out if he has been subconsciously preparing himself for one of them for the past four years.

“I always assumed that our coach had some greater plan for us. I didn’t question him when he punished us by making us stop running, but now I’m worried it was all a farce. There has to be more to what we have been doing than just getting really good at running,” he asserted.

Mejosnik, who is looking into medical school as part of his post-graduation plans, has become more and more uncertain about the applicability of all of his skills honed at Whitman since his revelation.

“I’ve always thought I was studying to one day get a job to apply the skills I learned. With four years of medical school and then residency ahead of me, it is starting to feel like I have been studying to just get good at studying. I can’t be a student my whole life, can I? How is Encounters going to help me when I graduate? The class, not the website. I have to apply these skills somehow,” said Mejosnik.

Presently, Mejosnik is frantically try to find an application for his cardiovascular endurance, but has not found it yet. Sports are difficult, Mejosnik has found, and getting in shape is only half of the battle.

“So far I have been pretty unsuccessful, but I remain optimistic. If nothing else, it could make me a better runner. I mean, if running makes you better at playing basketball, playing basketball has to make you a better runner, right?”

Over spring break, senior Devin Kuh, three other students and a group of 11 Whitman alumni will be rafting through 277 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. For Kuh, the trip is a culmination of interests he has fostered during his time at Whitman and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead his dream trip.

The trip—which will take 21 days and forces the four Whitman students to miss a week and a half of classes—began this week, but has been in the planning stages since Kuh was a raft guide in South America at this time last year. One of the most difficult parts of planning a trip like this one is the paperwork that needs to be filled out. Because the Grand Canyon is such a desirable location to raft, permits are distributed through a lottery system.

“Last December I signed up for the lottery system but decided I didn’t want to apply for a permit because I was in South America and couldn’t really plan. But then Adam Michel [’12] asked how to do it. I told him, he applied and won a permit,” Kuh said.

The trip began to fall into place, but still faced a lot of logistical obstacles. Because the trip is not through Whitman’s Outdoor Program, the funding was done independently and the food and rentals were done through a company.

“It’s funded through all of our savings,” said Kuh, only half-joking. “Although doing all of our rentals and food through a company is expensive, I definitely think it is worth the time saved in planning and logistics.”

When Kuh realized just how realistic the prospects of the trip were, there was no doubt in the senior’s mind that he would be willing to miss a week and a half of classes to make it happen.

“I worked really hard the week and a half before, finishing writtens, orals and a thirty-minute thesis presentation, along with all my classwork for these three weeks,” said Kuh, who will graduate with degrees in both economics and mathematics this May.

Kuh takes his academics seriously, but knew this was a unique opportunity and refused to pass it up.

“Knowing the first time I see the Grand Canyon will be from the bottom with a group of great people and 21 days of adventure to come is a great feeling,” said Kuh.

Kuh, who is about to enter the working world, sees the timing as perfect for the trip.

“After school, I’ll have work and more financial obligations that will not always allow for a three-week vacation,” said Kuh.

Kuh has been looking forward to the trip since it became a reality, and is particularly excited by the prospect of spending extended time with schoolmates and alumni. The other current students joining Kuh are juniors Jake Gavin and Forrest Epstein, as well as senior Heather Domonoske.

Kuh and his companions will be rafting by day and sleeping under the stars at night, making the most of their spring breaks in one of the country’s most wondrous places.

“Simply put, it is the Grand Canyon,” said Kuh.