Early mornings bring around coffee shop attendees, dog owners out strolling before work and unlucky students with 8 a.m. classes.
Others are sleeping soundly in bed and others are working out in Dixon Recreation Center. Some, on the Division 1 rowing teams, are getting up for morning practices. Evan Park, a chemistry major at Oregon State University is one of those rowers.
Growing up, Park tried her hand in a variety of sports, including water polo, skiing, swimming and basketball, but didn’t think of rowing until she got to Oregon State University.
Park, a junior studying chemistry and a walk on to the OSU women’s rowing team, has now medaled globally.
“Evan has a drive that is amazing. She pushes herself and is motivated internally. She’s kind. She’s a world traveler, we lived in Italy for her last two years of high school. She has overcome tough times and has learned how to take care of her body, heart and mind,” said Anna Park, Park’s mother.
Both of Park’s parents walked on the University of Oregon rowing teams, so the whole family was excited to watch her follow in their footsteps even with no experience rowing.
“These last couple years have been an amazing journey and adventure. Evan is dedicated, motivated, focused and so strong,” said Anna Park. “It is an amazing joy to watch her efforts open doors we had no idea existed a couple years ago.”
As a sophomore, Park decided to attempt to walk on to the rowing team. Just to make the team, she was required to take a Physical Activity Course for new rowers that met four days a week during fall term.
“I started the class, the PAC class, and it was just so much fun to be in a team environment again with other people who wanted to be competitive and work towards a bigger goal,” Park said.
She said that her experience in sports prior to college transferred over well, especially mentally. While she played many sports, she mentioned that the full body workout that comes with swimming was most similar to rowing. Having that experience let her have a mentality coming into the sport that was comparable to those who had been participating for years.
The rowing teams at OSU are unique in that they provide a thoroughly structured program in order for walk-ons to truly work their way up to the level of recruits on the team.
The PAC class outlines the skills needed to be a proficient D1 rower. Those who meet certain times during tryouts are invited to join the varsity rowing teams, according to the OSU College of Health.
“I felt imposter syndrome for a while,” Park said. “But, I mean, I had the data, we do ergs every week, and I could see my times improving week to week.”
Ergs are the measuring system that rowing uses internationally to rank a rowers ability against others. While technically a “rowing machine” that lets users create the rowing motion on dry land, the rowing community also uses the term as a measurement of a rowers strength.
The measurements come in the form of splits (time over distance) and watts, or the power of the stroke. Erg machines not only allow Oregonian rowers to escape the rainy season, but also lets them compare times on a national level with ease.
Each week, Park watched her erg times surpass those in her PAC class and even level with the current rowing teams’ times.
“I think that’s the part that really got me hooked, just how competitive it was and how fun it is to improve and get faster,” Park said.
With those times, Park made the OSU women’s rowing team at the end of fall term, and transitioned into practicing full-time.
The rowing team’s schedule is intense according to Park. Three days a week, they practice twice a day, and practice once a day for another three days. Sundays are off due to National Collegiate Athletic Association standards, but that leaves little time for a chemistry major like Park to study.
“It’s definitely been a challenge to try and fit that in with the rowing schedule,” Park said.
She mentioned that for chemistry, she not only has class, but time consuming labs that she has to fit into her days.
“I am really enjoying chemistry, so I make it work. But it definitely takes a lot of time and persistence and motivation,” Park said. “You do a really hard practice and then you have to go home and do your homework.”
Last summer during her break, after submitting a 2K and 6K personal record, Park was among 22 women sent to the selection camp in Oklahoma City. On the second day, they competed in a 2K test, and Park ended with the fastest time.
“It was insane to me, but also made me feel really confident about the camp,” Evan said.
At the end of the five weeks, 12 women were chosen to compete in Bulgaria in one eight and one quad boat.
Park rowed in seat five with the eight. After beating Germany with a come back win, they headed straight through to finals, where they beat Germany by four seconds, earning the United States’ third consecutive gold medal.
Park’s teammate, Maeve Donnelly, a senior psychology student at OSU, watched Park compete in Bulgaria from home. Another teammate, Giulia Clerici also raced for Team Italy in Bulgaria.
“Most of the team followed their whole process, and that was really cool to see people we work with every day do something as big as that,” Donnelly said.
“(Park) is honestly a really cool teammate to have. She’s super motivated internally, which is so cool to have someone to work with all the time who you see go so hard, and be so motivated by herself,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly met Park in 2022, when Park joined the rowing team. Since then, they have become closer, and have rowed together in competitions. In October 2023, the pair placed second in Washington, and first a week before that in Spokane.
“She’s always looking for more,” Donnelly said. “I’ve learned a lot from Evan in terms of actually rowing, but also just being competitive.”
Park plans to remain at OSU and compete with the team for her last year of eligibility next year. After completing their fall season, the next competition for the OSU women’s rowing team is in March 2024 vs. Miami State and Washington State.
