The Marin Rowing Association has a history of excellence: In 2011 the men’s and women’s teams won three national championships collectively, and in 2014 the lightweight men’s team went undefeated and won Nationals. Not surprisingly, each team has a history of sending its rowers off to impressive colleges to compete, including many Ivy League schools.

 This year, in addition to a number of rowers committing to other top schools, seniors Conor Reilly, Ryan Clyde, Kendall Bearly-Malinowski, and Christina Nordrum each committed to row for the University of Pennsylvania.

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Even through the strenuous and sometimes never-ending work that crew entails, both Reilly and Clyde have always wanted to row in college.

“I always dreamed of getting recruited and I was looking up to guys in the past who had gone to Harvard and these really good schools,” Clyde said. “I think it was at the end of my sophomore year that I realized that if I commit I can be as good as them and get to that same place.”

By his junior year, Reilly was in contact with four schools: the United States Naval Academy, Princeton, Columbia and Penn. Reilly eliminated Navy early on in the process due to his apprehension to commit to a Navy career, and was left with Princeton, Columbia, and Penn. After an official visit to Princeton, Reilly eliminated it, as well.

“Columbia was too late in the game,” Reilly said. “By the time my official [visit] rolled around, Penn was asking me for a decision and I liked Penn a lot. The city dynamic was really cool — it always had something going. I think it fit my personality more, and the guys on the team were super cool.”

Clyde, too, was in contact with multiple schools.

“The coaches will talk to a lot of athletes during the recruiting process and will rank you. For Princeton and those other schools, I wasn’t quite where they wanted me,” Clyde said.

Another deciding factor for both rowers was the school’s location. Clyde and Reilly were set on going to school in an urban setting, and this was one of the reasons why Reilly couldn’t see himself attending Princeton.

Reilly started crew as an eighth grader after struggling to find a passion for swimming, and Clyde joined crew freshman year after getting cut from the water polo team. At first, adjusting to the competitive nature of crew was difficult for Clyde.

“I hated it for the first two months, but once you get good at the sport it feels like nothing else,” Clyde said.

Reilly said that he immediately found the sport to be a great replacement to swimming.

“The sport is kind of unique; not a lot of other sports are where you go out and hang out with your best buds on a boat after school,” Reilly said.

When deciding where to commit, both Clyde and Reilly found that they connected with the Penn coach. According to Reilly, Penn has historically been a very good team, but has struggled in the past decade or so. However, the team has significantly improved lately due to the new head coach.

“[The coach] is totally the man,” Reilly said. “He knows what he’s talking about. He is kind of feeling his way out, and he knows what needs to be done. His first year coaching he won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship, which is basically the men’s national championship.”

According to Reilly, the Penn team as a whole is very young. Combined with a coach who was a lightweight champion and a former Olympic team member, both Reilly and Clyde saw great potential in Penn’s team and are excited to continue rowing together for four more years.

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Nordrum’s and Bearly-Malinowski’s recruiting processes were different than those of the boys and even from each other.

Nevertheless, both openweight rowers ended up committing to the University of Pennsylvania.

Bearly-Malinowski had her mind set on other schools, and Nordrum didn’t even decide that she wanted to row in college until the beginning of her senior year.

“My recruiting process was kind of backwards because I was still thinking about it and usually it starts your junior year,” Nordrum said. “For me it was senior year, and basically once I decided that I wanted to go to Penn I started contacting the coaches and talking to them.”

Bearly-Malinowski, on the other hand, knew she wanted to row in college since she began rowing sophomore year.

Despite her desire to row in college, the recruiting process was long and challenging.

“There was a lot of communication with a lot of people, and a lot of changing statistics, meaning what I needed in order to be recruited. And a lot of competition, so it was really hard,” Bearly-Malinowski said. “It was pretty stressful for me — it was my whole junior year.”

The stress of trying to reach certain erg scores in order to impress college coaches, as well as achieve the top grades needed to get into a school like Penn, was very difficult for Bearly-Malinowski.

“With the grades and test scores that I have, I wouldn’t be a shoo-in for the school. I would be competitive, but that’s a huge bracket, because only like eight percent of applicants get in,” Bearly-Malinowski said. “So with crew I had to get a certain score and combine that with a high academic profile, and it was really stressful trying to get those stats.”

Bearly-Malinowski, who has always been a lightweight rower, ended up committing to Penn as an openweight rower because they don’t have a lightweight women’s team.

That decision will present her with an extra challenge next year because she will be rowing with people who are much taller and bigger, putting her at a disadvantage.

However, other factors besides the classification of the team weighed into Bearly-Malinowski’s decision to commit to Penn.

“It was one of my top three schools, so I already wanted to go there. I just really liked the campus and so I was just interested in it based off of that,” Bearly-Malinowski said.

Even though she was already interested in the school, Bearly-Malinowski said that, in the end, the schools have the final decision.

“The schools have to choose you; you have to be wanted by them. I had other schools that I wanted to go to, but I wasn’t fast enough,” she said.

However, Bearly-Malinowski said she is happy with her decision.

“It just felt like a good fit, and I really like the coach,” she said. “She seems really hard, actually, but I think that’s what you need to be a successful team.”

Nordrum went through a much different recruiting process — Penn was the only school that she contacted.

“I would say that when I started rowing I almost didn’t want to get recruited, didn’t want to be that person, but then by senior year it was like, ‘I really love rowing and I really love this college, so why not do both?’” Nordrum said.

Academics, however were a huge factor in Nordrum’s decision.

Nordrum plans to major in engineering, a very strong program at Penn.  However, this means she will have to balance extra classes with a busy rowing schedule.

Nordrum also chose Penn because of the coaching staff.

“I had one of the coaches a few summers ago, and another one of the coaches is really good friends with our coach, so I knew that she would be a good person,” Nordrum said. “I got to watch him during a practice and I really liked the way he did things.”

Not only did Nordrum like the coaches, but she also fell in love with the school as a whole.

“I loved the environment and the atmosphere, and the team of girls are all really close and happy about rowing, which is exciting. And Penn as a school, I just love the campus,” Nordrum said.

Nordrum is looking forward to rowing alongside teammate Bearly-Malinowski next fall.

“I’m really excited because I feel like it will help with the transition because different teams can row in different styles, so having someone else who rows the same way I do is an easier transition,” Nordrum said.