Beuke wins rowing championship, looks to compete in world championships

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Sequim’s Elise Beuke continues to find herself among the best athletes and competition on the national level and in the world.

Two weekends ago, the 19-year-old college sophomore helped the University of Washington win a national rowing championship on May 28 in New Jersey, its first in the sport since 2001.

Beuke, rowing in the No. 7 seat for the varsity eight, was in one of three UW boats ranked No. 1 and to win each race.

“I don’t think it’ll ever truly sink in,” Beuke said on the phone from Seattle.

“It’s kind of like when you have a birthday and people ask “do you feel older.” It’s the same kind of thing. I don’t think it’ll ever sink in.”

But Beuke said it’s also hard to be content because there’s always another obstacle.

“To win is the expectation but losing is the emotionally taxing part,” she said. “It’s not that I like to win. I hate losing that much.”

Beuke, a 2015 Sequim High graduate, was part of the UW Second Varsity Eight crew as a freshman that placed third last year while the team took fifth overall. She moved up to the first Varsity Eight crew this year and rode in every seat at different points, she said.

Less than a week after the National Championships, Beuke left to conquer her next goal — making the Women’s Under-23 USRowing National Team at Princeton University.

She will try out with four UW teammates for the sweep, boats where each rower uses one oar, team for a shot to compete in the Under-23 World Championships July 19-23 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Looking to compete at the World Championships wasn’t something she was actively seeking out, she said, but heard from her friend and teammate Marlee Blue that it was a lot of fun.

Beuke said she also felt ready to row more after season’s end after sitting out the winter quarter with a rib fracture.

New feel

This year, Beuke said UW had a new feeling with their new coach Yasmin Farooq, the former women’s rowing coach at Stanford.

“The team culture was bad ass,” Beuke said.

“Everyone was focused on each stroke at each practice trying to be better. It was approaching the day with a standard. It wasn’t about the next test or race. It was about the workout and improving on what I did yesterday.”

Despite a No. 1 ranking and high expectations, Beuke said teammates never talked about those things in the spring or ever.

Beuke said just because they won a national championship doesn’t mean they’ll “take our foot off the gas pedal.”

She anticipates trust continuing to build in Farooq among the team and teammates will come in ready.

“If we’re working even harder next year and that provides another national championship — great,” Beuke said. “If we work harder and someone wins it, then we know we at least worked harder.”

Halberg’s legacy

Beuke got her start rowing with the Olympic Peninsula Rowers Association in Port Angeles, which was started by John Halberg who died in January.

He was an advocate for local rowers like Beuke and while rowing in high school she earned a spot on the U.S Junior National team and later a seventh-place finish at the World Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 2015.

She said Halberg, a UW grad, “played a huge role in why I am who I am.”

“He gave so much to OPRA and he supported me so much even after I went to college,” Beuke said.

“People talk about the legacy before you and rowing for the people before you. Not only was he someone who pretty much put me in a place to join the Junior National Team but he also contributed to that school legacy.”

Schooling

Classwork finished last week for Beuke who continues to pursue an art degree to become a curator.

She doesn’t see much difference between her passions of art and rowing either.

“Art is more regimented than people think,” Beuke said.

“With art, every single choice is vary intentional, so there is a lot of planning, a lot of process for creation. There are artists who spend hours and hours because they are perfectionists. I think there’s a similar rigor. Rowing is a unique sport with a lot of pain and it’s very much about the flow and getting the right movements.”

She’ll return to UW in the fall as a junior but depending on if she makes the national team, she plans to travel Europe this summer to see friends. She plans to take a few weeks off to see family, friends and train more before school starts as well.

For more on the team, visit facebook.com/UWHuskyCrew or www.gohuskies.com.