- August 2023
Personal Statement
My name is Ainsley Bedford and I am in my junior year attending Our Lady of Mercy High School for Young Women. I have competed for Pittsford Crew Scholastic competitive team for the past five years. During this time, I have grown as both an athlete and a person while finding my true passion and love for rowing. I have been stroking Pcrew boats for four years in numerous boats including doubles, fours and eights. In the spring of 2022 I started competing in singles as well.
Fall of 2021 I stroked the women’s youth 1V eight at HOCR where we placed twenty seventh out of seventy-seven boats in our race. The following spring season I stroked the 1V four at New York State Scholastic Championships. We placed second overall awarding us our bid for the 2022 Youth Nationals Regatta in Sarasota, Florida. At nationals we finished twenty fifth in the nation despite our sudden lineup change due to our previous bow seats injury just one week prior.
What differentiates me from other recruits is my grit. My grit shines through in all of my workouts, but specifically longer distance rowing, erging, swimming and running. An example of this is that I erged a marathon in three hours forty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds. This proved to both myself and my coaches that I was able to work to any reach goal, no matter how daunting or painful it may be. I believe that regularly pushing myself and my teammates out of our comfort zone allows us to not shy away from a PR or a hard workout. We need to be lions and face them head on.
