As hundreds of seniors anxiously await their college acceptance or rejection letters, a select group of athletes have already begun buying sweatshirts and learning the fight songs of their future colleges.

Many of these athletes have the Marin Rowing Association to thank for their peace of mind.

Seniors Jones Bazalgette, Jack Stein, Zach Johnson and Lela McCrea have already been offered admission to some of the most prestigious universities around the country, in large part because of their work for crew.

The Dartmouth-bound McCrea has dreamed of rowing in college ever since her older brother and sister were recruited as rowers.

“Both of them won national championships in high school, and both were recruited to row in college,” McCrea said.

Bazalgette, who will attend Cornell University this fall, said he began attracting the attention of colleges during his junior year.

“Columbia flew me out there for a couple days and I got to see the school that way,” said Bazalgette. “I was also talking to Princeton and Yale, but after a while I stopped talking to them.”

Bazalgette then flew out to Cornell— his flight partially paid for— and made his decision after staying with another athlete for a few days.

Johnson, who will be attending Yale next fall, was much more proactive in getting himself noticed by colleges.

“Around halfway through my junior year, I needed to start emailing coaches so I made contact with them first,” Johnson said. “I also went to the national team training camp over summer and I met a lot of the coaches, including the Yale coach, there.”

Johnson’s decision to attend Yale, like Bazalgette’s, came after visiting the campus and staying with some of the other rowers there.

“I felt like I belonged there the most, and I just had the best time there,” he said.

McCrea, who’s list of possible schools included Harvard, Yale and Stanford, believes that the Marin Rowing Association has a lot to do with the amount of attention she has garnered from prospective colleges.

“We [MRA] have one of the top programs in the nation right next to us,” she said. “We’ve had  national champions before and we’ve had people in the Olympics. Because of that, we’re going to be more recruited.”

Stein, who is waiting on Loyola Marymount University’s decision after being accepted by Northeastern for crew, said that although the Marin Rowing Association gets attention from colleges across the country, it was not why he started rowing.

In Johnson’s case, he knew that he would be a rower almost as soon as he could walk.

“My dad was a rower and it was something I kind of just grew up around and I assumed that I was going to do,” he said. “It was kind of natural for me to just start rowing.”

While all four athletes agreed that crew is a great way to get into college, they also believe that many don’t understand how much of a commitment rowing is.

“If you’re good at crew, it’s easier to get into a good college, because there are less crew kids out there,” Bazalgette said. “But crew requires more work throughout high school. Its six days a week for 2-½ hours each day, nine months out of the year.”

His coach, Graham Willoughby, agrees with this sentiment.

“I can see where a lot of people think of it as sort of a fringe sport that gets extra attention,” Willoughby said. “The fact that colleges like to recruit from our club attracts kids, but at the end of the day the guys that stick around are the guys that love rowing. The amount of work that we do here and the fact that the season is nine months long, has a lot to do with it.”

McCrea believes that being a girl in crew means an even greater likelihood of being recruited to row in college.

“Women’s rowing is the number two recruited sport behind football,” said McCrea. “All the big colleges have a team for it, and not all high schools have teams.”

 However, getting into college for crew and being a factor on the team are two different things. Yet each rower believes that they can make a significant impact on their respective team.

Bazalgette believes he can be a factor for the Cornell team, but that weight-class has now become a factor.

“I definitely want to be on the freshman boat, and I think I’ll do that,” said Bazalgette. “I’m on the lightweight team though, so I need to keep my weight down.”

Willoughby says that the fact that all four of the athletes have been rowing for four years will be a huge advantage when competing at the collegiate level.

Whether they succeed or not in college, each athlete will have a great education and the respect of their coach.

Said Willoughby, “I’m really proud of the work that they do.”