ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell rowing teams have their heads and hearts on the water preparing for the upcoming season, but their more immediate concern every spring is the shore along the Cayuga Lake Inlet. All three Big Red squads spent Saturday afternoon doing their annual spring cleaning of the area they view on a daily basis while training.

For more than a decade, the Big Red rowing teams have spent thousands of man hours cleaning up the inlet during low water times and prior to spring break. As one of the longest users of the Inlet, they have long taken responsibility for keeping the area clean. This year's cleanup generated 40 tires, seven shopping carts and several hundred bags of trash with 150 student-athletes spending two hours apiece beautifying the shoreline.

As the student-athletes fanned out to clean the area, the coaches patrolled the shoreline on launches, identifying and picking up trash that their student-athletes had bagged to transport it back to be picked up by the city.