Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Rowing Journal - Allegra Colandro
4/30/2010 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
April 30, 2010
The race was tight from the start. Pulling up to line, however, I sensed it would be. Lane one Penn, lane two Bucknell, lane three Penn. The second varsity four was the first openweight race of the day, and we had a chance to set the stage for the races to come. The red flag snapped down. Within the first 15 strokes, we pressed the rate up to 38 strokes per minute, a number that would have seemed much less plausible a week before. Before the first 500 meters were down, we jumped half a length on the crew to our right, while the crew to the left hung off at a distance of open water. The crew in lane three, trailing only a few seats behind us, continued to edge back on our four, sit one seat down, and then subsequently recede. We, however, remained steady. I recall counting five strokes at a time and thinking about maintaining my composure and aggressive press on the oar. As I told myself to stay aggressive, our coxswain urged us to keep putting space between ourselves and the other crew, no matter how much we already had. She wanted more seats and open water. Not until the last 250 meters, the last 30 strokes, did we decisively pull away. However, it was not our sprint that won the race but rather our steady and aggressive press which wore down the other crew and shut them out.
When we crossed the line, parents cheering, I felt fulfilled. This feeling did not necessarily come from the win, but rather the fact that we had been able to set the stage for the other Bucknell crews to come down the line. We had not only raised our own bar but the bar for the team. We had given them a platform to stand on, we had given them inches, inches the next boat down the line would need.
As we headed back to Princeton's boathouse, the third varsity eight event had gone off. Our freshman eight was barreling down the course, and in first. After cheering as loudly as I could, throat raw and raspy from the race, another feeling came over me - pride. I was so proud of these girls competing with and then beating the top boats in the country. The following race down the course, the varsity four, I only was able to see the start of, yet I felt I was in that boat too, giving them inches, knowing that the race pieces in practice earlier that week between the three fours, could only propel those girls to great things.
At the end of the racing day, I knew something had happened. Bucknell was in. Our program had not only competed with the top teams in the nation, but we had won two races. Bucknell was in the races. I should not have been as surprised as I was however. Our program is set up so that each boat not only pushes the next but builds for the next. We are the foundation and the wooden planks for the boats above and below us. Likewise, I feel there are no "boats" rather we, individually and collectively, are in all the boats. When the lightweight eight races the freshman eight and the second varsity eight races the first varsity eight, the press from one boat on one day has given inches to another crew the next. So, if there comes a time that the second varsity four gets to be the first race down the course, setting the stage and getting a chance to raise the other Bucknell crews up, I know we will gladly accept the challenge.
- Allegra Colandro '11
