STANFORD, Calif. – The Stanford men’s rowing team rowed 54 miles over the weekend in honor of the 54-mile march Martin Luther King Jr. made from Selma to Montgomery.
The idea was thought up by head coach Craig Amerkhanian, who decided to honor King with the 54-mile row after the team’s second training trip of the year fell on the weekend that celebrates his birthday.
“Craig is an animated guy and his energy is pretty contagious,” said senior Kaess Smit. “Rowing 54 miles is a lot and was a good challenge for our team to overcome. Nobody on the team had ever rowed that far in a day before. It is essentially rowing the distance of two marathons.”
The team headed North to the Petaluma River and started Saturday morning by rowing 26 miles. The team then turned around and added another 14 miles in the afternoon. The 54 miles were obtained Sunday morning with an additional 14 miles of rowing. While rowing Amerkhanian played King's legendary speech as well as music to keep the guys motivated.
“It was a real struggle to the mileage in and took a lot of hard effort,” said senior Scott Roycroft. “It got to the point where we had to commit together and stay focused, but having the specific goal and purpose to honor Martin Luther King Jr. pushed us even though we were all really tired.”
The distance is much longer than any normal practice or race. The row brought the team closer together and gave the guys a sense of accomplishment when faced with a tough situation.
“We stayed focus and I was impressed with our younger guys all maintaining their composure,” said Smit. “It is a good sign of things to come. Progressing forward you need guys with firm resolve and are willing to put in the work with things get hard. We have a really good core group of guys.”
Roycroft also thought the training trip would pay dividends later in the season.
“Rowing in two eights we all learned the lesson that even when you are tired and not rowing well you can rally together to accomplish something, like coming back in a race after a poor start,” said Roycroft.
The team closed the trip by stopping on the way home at Roycroft’s house in Greenbrae for lunch on Sunday, giving the team a chance to bond a little more before returning to campus.
