GIVING EVERYTHING: Princeton University women’s lightweight varsity eight coxswain Elena Every displays her focus as she guides the boat in recent action. Last Sunday, senior Every helped guide the Tiger top boat to first place in its grand final at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship on the Cooper River in Camden. It marked the fifth straight lightweight women’s national title for the varsity eight. In addition, Princeton won its fourth straight Commissioner’s Cup which is awarded to the squad with the most team points. The Tigers ended the regatta with 67 points to win the Cup with Harvard-Radcliffe coming in second with 59 points and Boston University taking third with 57. (Photo by Row2K, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)

By Justin Feil

Elena Every joined the women’s lightweight rowing program in 2021 to enrich her experience at Princeton University.

It’s done even more for the senior coxswain than she ever could have expected.

“I’m really grateful for it,” said Every. “It’s a very unique experience. I didn’t expect to be able to call myself a student-athlete and I’m forever grateful for it.”

Having never played a sport growing up, Every caps her career as a three-time national champion after the Princeton varsity eight boat (also known as the 1V) won its grand final at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship on the Cooper River in Camden on Sunday. In addition, Princeton won its fourth straight Commissioner’s Cup which is awarded to the squad with the most team points. The Tigers ended the regatta with 67 points to win the Cup with Harvard-Radcliffe coming in second with 59 points and Boston University taking third with 57.

It marked the fifth straight lightweight national title for the 1V and the second in a row for Every. As a sophomore, she was the cox for the women’s lightweight varsity four that also won IRA gold. Those experiences gave her confidence going into her final nationals.

“It would be the perfect way to top off my Princeton career,” said Every. “It would mean a lot. Everyone on this team has worked so hard to have this winning streak that we’ve had, and to be able to contribute one last time before I leave to that legacy and leave behind this legacy would be incredible.”

Every came to Princeton from the Douglas Anderson School of Arts in Florida. The Jacksonville, Fla. resident grew up dancing, and expected to continue only that at Princeton as a student pursuing Public and International Affairs, not add a sport. She hadn’t played sports or even watched many sports growing up.

“I’m fairly small,” said Every. “I’ve never had a lot of opportunities where I could be competitive in sports. It wasn’t something I really tried, and I didn’t know walking onto college teams was a thing.”

A friend who was a coxswain on the Princeton men’s lightweight team encouraged her to give crew a try.

“He was telling me what they did and was saying incredible things about the women’s lightweight program,” said Every. “Coming into politics and dancing my whole life, I really wanted to take the opportunity to make the most of my college career and completely pivot and try something completely different. And it gave me a similar space to dance that I really love, really competitive and having goals that you’re constantly working towards with the team, something that you can’t necessarily get out of writing essays in class.”

Every had a lot of catching up to do as she had no background in the sport.

“I knew absolutely nothing about rowing coming into this,” said Every. “The only exposure I had to rowing before walking onto the team was that one scene of the Winklevoss twins from The Social Network rowing in the tanks. I didn’t really know anything — that Princeton was such a top program — and once I walked on I saw how successful the program was doing, I saw how hard everyone worked, how dedicated all the recruited athletes and also the walk-on rowers were incredible — our coaches do a great job working with them — and it was really inspiring. It made me really want to buy in and throw myself into the sport as much as I saw everyone else doing.”

After coxing the novice four-plus boat in a pair of races as a freshman, Every came back to make a jump to the varsity four. The boat made some history with their first Eastern Sprints gold since 2010 before winning their IRA crown by less than a second over MIT.

Her progression continued when she moved up to the varsity eight boat last year. The Tigers were unbeaten on their way to an Eastern Sprints title and an IRA gold. While she didn’t have rowing experience, her dance background was important.

“I do think dance came in very helpful,” said Every. “Rhythm is such an important part of what we’re doing in the boat – trying to set that perfect rhythm and I think that’s something that I’m constantly drawing on from my dance and music background. Also the synchronicity of being able to perfectly time up every single muscle of all eight rowers in one boat just being perfectly as one together is something that I’ve done taking dance my entire life. So being able to have that eye for it is really helpful.”

The varsity eight was unbeaten this spring right up to nationals even though it had new members in the boat. Claire Brockman is the only other senior. Three others besides Every are also walk-ons. Mimi French, Emma Mirrer and Hannah Hoselbarth are juniors, Cate Barry and Alice McCarthy are sophomores and Amelie McComb and Kalista Whildin are freshmen.

“It’s a lot of people that are a little fresher to the college racing scene that are really excited to jump in and prove themselves and show the coaches and rowing world what they can do,” said Every.
The perfect record in the regular season put them in the favored role going into nationals, but the Tigers defused some of that pressure with a mindset that has been working for them.

“I think it’s a hard position to be in,” said Every. “You never want to take anything for granted. It’s hard to make sure you’re not being lulled into a false sense of where you’re taking any race for granted. We talk about this all the time, but we take this approach that every race is like the first race of the season, approaching every race almost with a mindset that we’ve never won this cup before. We won the Cup ’24 IRAs, but we never won the Cup ’25 IRAs so this is a completely new cup and race for us to win. So really having that fresh perspective. It’s never about a matter of us defending a title, it’s about going after a new one.”

The Saturday semifinals left a little doubt as Princeton finished second to Harvard-Radcliffe, but advanced to the final. Their second-place finish was motivation heading into the grand final Sunday as Princeton beat Radcliffe by more than three seconds thanks to clocking an IRA record time of 6:19.320 over the 2,000-meter course.

“I think it’s composure and confidence,” said Every. “We work really hard all year to get where we are. We’re a really tough crew and I think a lot of that is owed to the fact that we never have moments of doubt – are we fast enough, are we good enough? We are fast enough. We are good enough. And never letting that doubt creep in and settle in our minds and really trusting each other knowing that we all have each other’s backs, that every single person in the boat is pulling just as hard as everyone to really push ourselves forward. Everyone is taking care of all the small details from nutrition and sleep and recovery and just making sure when it all comes together and we’re sitting at the start that we trust each other and know exactly what we can do and being confident in our speed.”

That confidence paid off again for Every and the Princeton lightweight women. She’ll have one more chance to race in the boat this summer at the Henley Royal Regatta in England before she intends to pursue a non-profit public sector role. Every had made the most of each chance to compete and do something that she never anticipated meaning so much to her time at Princeton.

“It’s been the most incredible experience that I never expected to walk into,” said Every. “I’ve never done sports in my life and I was encouraged to walk on with the women’s lightweight program my freshman year. The fact that I started out as a walk-on my freshman year and been able to move up the ranks to be able to have the 1V was an incredible experience.”