Tampa Prep’s Burdge ready to win titles at Stanford

Posted Nov 10, 2011 by Nick Williams

Updated Nov 14, 2011 at 01:20 PM

When she made her official visit to Stanford last month, Tampa Prep rower Taylor Burdge was expecting to see members of the former NCAA champion crew team training perfectly and vigorously without rest, as if they were manufactured.

What she found was a normal group of college students, who just loved winning.

“They work hard but still have a sense of camaraderie,” she said.

That’s why Burdge will take her talents to California in the fall to become a member of Stanford’s rowing team. Burdge is the second student-athlete from Tampa Prep to sign a Division I scholarship during the early NCAA signing period.

“Stanford has everything that I wanted,” she said.

Burdge is the 2010 and 2011 FSRA state champion, she won the Head of the Hooch Championship in 2010, was selected to the US Rowing Junior National Team Sculling Selection Camp this past summer, won the Southeast Regional Championship in 2010 and 2011, finished second at the Stotesbury Cup this last spring, and won this year’s U.S Rowing Youth Nationals Championship, which is when Burdge said Stanford began showing interest.

Burdge owns a 4.0 grade point average and plans on pursuing a degree in biochemistry.