Youth Sports Report:

Rowing: Plant’s Murray commits to Virginia

Posted Nov 10, 2009 by Nick Murray

Updated Nov 10, 2009 at 03:38 PM

Plant rowing standout Elisabeth Murray has committed to Virginia to continue her rowing career, and will sign with the Cavaliers on Monday morning at school.

“A lot of things went into my choice,” Murray said. “It was difficult for me to decide when I had a lot of option, but to me UVA has an amazing academic and amazing rowing team, and they have a well-rounded social life. It was just really well-rounded, and I like to keep my life well-rounded, I don’t like to focuse primarily on academics, or primarily on rowing, or primarily on my social life, I like to keep it all mixed together, and UVA seemed to portray that the best, and I felt I would fit in best there.”

Murray was also considering offers from Stanford, Michigan, Princeton and Yale, but is excited to be joining the Cavaliers, who finished fourth at the NCAA Championships in the spring.

“That’s something that really excites me, to enter a program that already has so much speed,” Murray said. “It excites me because I want to get faster, and I want to make more speed for that team. I want to compete nationally and win.”

As a junior at Plant, Murray was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team Women’s Varsity 8 that earned gold for the second successive year at the World Junior Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France. She has also been an integral figure in the Panthers’ success over the past two seasons. Plant’s womens crew won the state scholastic championship in the spring, Murray a member of the women’s varsity 8 that earned victory to lead the way.

The Panthers also won the Southeast Region varsity 8 championship before finishing ninth at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America National Championships last May. Now she is happy to have gotten her decision out of the way, so she can focus on school and rowing in the spring.

“It’s definitely really nice to have this done now,” Murray said. “During the period of deciding, that was definitely extremely stressful, going on official visits every weekend, it put me under a lot of stress then, but to have this done now ... it really helps me.

“All the other teams are going to be worrying about where they’re getting in during the spring, and I’m going to be able to focus on my academics and my rowing so I can continue to get better.”