Skidmore College Athletics

The Skidmore Men's Crew program was just a few years old when Chris Grosso '89 and John Onderdonk '89 arrived on campus in 1985. Grosso had not rowed previously while Onderdonk was captain of the crew program at the Pomfret School. They rowed in the first Varsity Eight all four years and were the stroke and seven-oar combination in Skidmore's top boat for three years.  

Grosso and Onderdonk also competed in the pair event against regional and national competition. Both lightweight oarsmen weighing less than 160 pounds each, the men challenged heavyweight oarsmen in every race. As juniors, the pair captured the Bob Negaard Cup at the Dad Vail Championship Regatta in Philadelphia, the small college national competition with over 100 schools represented. They returned the following year to reclaim that title, posting the fastest time in the event's 50-year history. Victorious in every pair race in which they competed over a two-year period, Grosso and Onderdonk were selected co-winners of the 1989 Skidmore Senior Athlete of the Year Award.  

Their skill did not go unnoticed by members of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, and soon after Gross and Onderdonk were invited to row against Ivy League competition at the 1989 IRA Championship, where they won the bronze medal competing against 26 of the nation's best college heavyweight crews. This remarkable feat was lauded in a June 1989 New York Times article entitled, "Big Success for a Pair from a Tiny Program." Their singular achievements marked a seminal moment in the history of Skidmore Men's Crew, launching the Thoroughbreds onto the national collegiate stage. Grosso and Onderdonk competed again as a pair in 2001 in the International Federation of Rowing Associations World Masters Regatta in Montreal, finishing second to Germany.