May 6, 2008

It was the most exciting race of my life. Those words are not spoken lightly after you have raced multiple times at the state and national level, but the second varsity eight final at the ECAC championships was just that. The amount of training that goes into a seven-minute race is unimaginable. The countless reps during endurance lifts and hundreds of strokes taken daily are all responsible for our victory this past Sunday. There are nine other things also accountable for the outcome of the race: the nine members of the boat. Working together, through the burning in our quads while on the leg press and during the workouts on the water, we have bonded and are together always focused on one common goal.

We arrived at the Cooper River having been seeded third, behind UMass and URI. Once we saw which six boats were in the final, we knew we had a tough race ahead of us. It would not get to open water, it would come down to seconds or even less. We jumped off of the starting line quickly, but so did UMass, Buffalo, and URI. It was a fight from the beginning. UMass had first place by just a few seats, and we were not going to let it stay that way. We had taken second place the weekend before and did not want to repeat that experience. Nearing the 500-meter mark, UMass still had a few seats on us. Mary commanded us to start moving, screaming "Who wants it more?" We wanted it. Soon, Mary was even with their seven seat, and from the middle of the boat we all heard a loud cry of "YEESSSSS". It was Meghan Murphy responding to Brittany Kaplan who had muttered under her breath, "Let's take this." Meghan's scream was so unexpected, so raw and so full of emotion that the entire boat responded with a surge of adrenaline and energy we thought we had depleted. From the depths of our souls we found something more and crossed the finish line one second ahead of UMass.

This race was not all about the win. This race proved to our boat that we could fight for each other, fight for Bucknell and fight for the other 52 women on the team. We pushed to what we thought was our limit and yet there was still more left. Now we know that when we are sitting at the starting line in two weeks, looking over at our Ivy League competitors, we have that fight in us. Do they?

- Taylor Jordan '11