Worth waiting for

Freshman Julia Braz's face wasn't sullen when she and her Stanford teammates crossed the line second in the 8+ grand final race at the NCAA Rowing Championships II recently at Nathan Benderson Park. 

Instead, she carried a look of pride. 

"It was incredible what we were able to do," Braz said of the event held May 28-30. 

Braz, who attended Riverview High and rowed for Sarasota Crew, said the moment was the culmination of months of intense work by her and her teammates, much of it in a time crunch. Braz said because of COVID-19 restrictions, she arrived on campus for the first time in late January and the Cardinal rowers were not allowed to race together until April. That put the team at a disadvantage; most teams had been rowing together since the fall, Braz said. 

Fall rowing is when teams gain their chemistry. They race and bond and figure out the best boat combinations. These things are building blocks for the spring season, Braz said. Without that experience, especially for a freshman, gelling with a team was that much harder. Other unusual circumstances worked in the rowers' favor, however. Normally, Braz said, rowers at Stanford don't room with each other, but because the school wanted to prevent spread of the virus, it made an exception. 

"That was the best thing that could have happened," Braz said. "We all got close. We all learned to lift each other up. We relied on each other a lot with rowing and school work and other things. You could voice your feelings on anything. There were so many amazing women there." 

Braz said the Cardinal's close quarters translated to quicker chemistry building, though the team was still behind other programs in terms of on-water experience. That didn't matter much; once races began, Stanford's natural talent took over. The Cardinal qualified for the NCAA Rowing Championships as an at-large bid after finishing second in the Pac-12 Championships to the University of Washington. Braz was happy to find herself in the II (second varsity) 8+ boat for the event. 

"When I got here I felt like I could step onto the team and help, but as a freshman, you are never going to be the best," Braz said. "Everyone else has more experience than you. Rowing with them [Sarasota Crew] helped, they're a great club, but the biggest thing I got from them was being prepared to work even harder in college. I learned a lot from the older rowers here and I kept developing."

Not only did Braz's boat finish second (6:24.48) in the second varsity grand final, 1.24 seconds behind the University of Texas, but the Cardinal finished second overall as a team behind Texas. It was the team's best finish since 2011. The season began strange, but Braz could not have dreamed of a better finish. She's carrying that momentum into the offseason, staying on campus and continuing to row and use the school's indoor rowing machines to stay in shape. 

"It's been a long journey," Braz said. "Even though waiting all that time [to start rowing] and training on my own was hard, coming together in the end was so cool. I'll never forget that."