This time last year, sophomores Morgan Kruger and Ashley Zalta were putting in two practices a day on the Charles, lifting weights to the extreme, and concentrating on how best to attack the choppy Seekonk River. The pair toiled together as members of the Radcliffe crew, with Zalta coxing the first novice boat that Kruger pulled for from the three-seat.

For Kruger, it was the first time she had been racing competitively in a boat, having been recruited for the sport as a track athlete. Her transition proved successful.

“She was by far one of the best novices,” Zalta said. “She was in the first boat in her first year, which was insane.”

“I came in as a wide-eyed novice, I didn’t really know what was going on, and I enjoyed everything about it,” Kruger said.

Concurrently with crew, the duo were also serving as business assistants (BAs) for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

“I got to be more and more involved in BAing,” Kruger said. “It just got more and more involved and it wasn’t something I wanted to stop. It wasn’t an ‘I want to stop crew.’ I just wanted to be in the Pudding, and I couldn’t do both of them.”

April last they were both accepted as full-fledged business staffers for the run of this year’s show, a move that forced both to give up rowing.

“It was less leaving crew or leaving the sport than joining the Pudding,” Zalta added. “They both have to be primary time commitments. I had done crew for a year, and I hadn’t been in the Pudding. It was a really hard choice, but in the end, I don’t think I could have chosen anything else.”

This year, Kruger served as business manager while Zalta filled the role of ticket sales manager.

But both had to get used to the fact that there were no longer wise coaches around to tell them what to do.

“You have adults around [in crew],” Zalta said. “There’s a huge difference having adults there. There were times freshman year when I really needed help and there were adults there who I totally could rely on, and that made a huge difference. And it was really scary for me to leave that and go into a club that didn’t have any adults, all college students.”

Independence and self-reliance were also part of the appeal, however. The chance to help run a half million-dollar company that sells over 10,000 tickets and travels to New York and Bermuda was too good to pass up.

“Crew is like a metaphor for life, because you can carry those skills over into real life, but the Pudding is real life,” Kruger said.

In the Pudding, both became eminently useful.

“Morgan and Ashley were two of the cornerstones of the business staff this year,” junior Romina Garber, a co-producer of the show, said.