 During his next three years on the varsity squad under the fabled Cornell coach R. H. (Stork) Sanford, Spero was a member of two more championship crews.His first international competition came at the World 1961 Maccabiah Games, when he won a gold medal in the coxed four, along with coxswain and coach Allen Rosenberg.He took up sculling in 1963, winning the U.S. National Championships in single sculls against the former national champion Seymour Cromwell.