Stewartville graduate has given her all to rowing

Jun. 12—MANHATTAN, Kan. — Four years ago, Regan Reker barely knew what rowing was.

Now it’s the thing she can’t imagine not having in her life.

“It’s grown me as an athlete and a person,” Reker said.

She has also grown into one of the top rowers in the country. Evidence is her being named to the All-Big 12 Conference rowing team this spring.

Now, as an incoming senior and a captain of her Kansas State University team, her aim is to make rowing all that it can be not only for herself, but her teammates, too.

With one last season left and maybe a fifth if she is granted it, Reker’s aim is to get everything she can from it. And to give everything she can, too.

That starts with the relationships she’s built through rowing. Reker’s goal is to not make winning the be all and end all of her experience. Intensely competitive, she is trying to become more than that, for herself and the people around her.

“I take rowing very seriously; sometimes that is our team’s downfall, we get in our own heads a lot,” said Reker, an honor student who is majoring in public health, with a minor in management and a certificate in global health. “Being a captain this year, I’m hoping to alleviate some of that. I want to advocate more for my teammates in certain stuff. And I want to leave a lasting culture here. At the end of the day, the person matters more than the athlete. I love rowing because of the people that it has brought into my life. They’re the reason I show up to practice every day.”

Out of Stewartville High School, Reker had always imagined she’d be a college volleyball player. But the University of Iowa got a hold of her recruiting profile, that she was 5-foot-10 and strapping strong, and thought she’d be an ideal rower.

She was all set to go there before taking a tour of Kansas State and seeing what its program had to offer. Reker liked what she saw and also liked the familiarity of Manhattan, Kan., a place she’d spent some of her growing-up years.

So, she made the late switch, from Iowa to Kansas State, where she joined a bunch of other novice rowers. Like Iowa, Kansas State recruits athletes that fit a certain physical profile, and Reker met theirs. Having rowing on your resume doesn’t matter. The school will teach them how to row.

When she entered the program, Reker was one of about 50 freshmen on the team. Now, that number is down to seven. Rowing, with all of its physical and mental demands, is not for everyone.

But it was for Reker.

“I stuck with it,” said Reker, who is spending her summer at home, working at the Rochester Athletic Club and getting steady workouts in there. “I don’t like to consider myself a quitter. I’m too stubborn for that. But rowing isn’t for everyone. Sometimes you don’t just love it.”

Rowing isn’t something that she is doing in order just to hang in there, though. It is a sport that has captured her heart.

There is magic in this sport.

“Being on the water is calming,” she said. “Being on a big body of water with seven other girls, or sometimes three, and when everyone is working together in unison, when it goes well, I can’t even describe it, it is so great. It feels like you’re flying.”

There are six Big 12 teams that offer rowing and compete against each other. Kansas State finished sixth among them this past year.

“We did not do well this past year,” Reker said. “We had 14 seniors who graduated from the year before which hurt us a lot. We are a very young team and the conference was good this year. But we had our moments and I am happy to build on that. On paper, it doesn’t show all that we accomplished.”

Kansas State’s last-place finish was not a reflection of all that Reker gave to this team.

She ends each competition pretty much the same way every time. Reker gives it all she’s got, every time out.

“I usually vomit after every race,” Reker said. “That’s just what my body does. But after about 10 minutes of that, it’s just like, ‘Wow, I really did it.’ It is a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that you gave 110 percent. I’ve never had that feeling before.”