Oklahoma City rowers share passion for sport
OCU Women's Varsity 4 - photo courtesy of Jeremy Stevens
Rowers from coast to coast descended on Oklahoma City on Saturday for the American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship regatta on the Oklahoma River.
A team that is closer to home — in both college affiliation and hometown — is the Oklahoma City University women’s four. The boat has a pair of rowers from the Pacific Northwest in Katie Sondag and Megan Duffy. The other three are from the Oklahoma City area — recent graduate Hydi Gibson, walk-on Dinah Harjo and coxwain Brianna Hurley.
Though their paths to the sport and the state are different, the group shares a common passion for this niche sport in a land-locked state that is growing into a rowing oasis.
Harjo came to OCU for academics and was recruited as a walk-on rower, a standard practice in collegiate rowing. ”It’s something unique to rowing that you can go to college and be part of a varsity sport and still never have competed in that sport as a youngster,” OCU coach Melanie Borger said. “When you find someone who’s athletic, who’s competitive, it’s just the process of teaching them how to row and then they turn into a phenomenal rower like Dinah.”For rowers Sondag and Duffy, the decision to come to Oklahoma was driven by the OCU rowing program.
Sondag, who “never would have come to Oklahoma or even thought about it” if it weren’t for rowing, has changed her tune about her new home and plans to stay after she completes her college education. Gibson, an Edmond native, changed her original plans to swim after she was recruited to row and intends to continue rowing now that she is competing in her last regatta as a college rower. ”Even though swimming was my passion, rowing is my newfound passion and I’ll do it for the rest of my life,” she said.”It’s a pretty sport; it’s a sport that you really can enjoy. You’re in nature, and you’re in a part of nature that you normally don’t see every day,” Borger said of catching the rowing bug. “And when you see the world, when you view the world from water you look at it differently.”
Duffy has that same perspective on the sport that she began well before her move from Seattle.”There’s just something about being in the water,” Duffy said. “It’s a perspective that a lot of people don’t get to see out there.”
In a state known for its passion for football and now the Thunder, the emerging interest in rowing is appreciated by those in the OCU program.Borger is impressed that “the (community) embraces (rowing) as part of the ‘New Oklahoma City’. To be surrounded by tons of people that are passionate about what I’m passionate about is nice.”
The group will have the opportunity to row one last time together today at 12:20 p.m. in the Women’s Varsity Petite finals.The action on the Oklahoma River starts at 7:56 a.m. today. Admission is free.
Also seen at: http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-city-rowers-share-passion-for-sport/article/3463302?custom_click=headlines_widget
