IU rower earns All-American honors

Indiana freshman rower Ellie Benson was named to the 2008 Division I Pocock All-American Second Team on June 6, becoming the second All-American in IU rowing history, according to a press release. She joins Laura Lazaridis, who earned All-America status in 2005 and 2006, as the only All-America rowers at Indiana.\n“The big thing is she’s a freshman and earning the honors,” IU coach Steve Peterson said. “That alone says something about the potential she has.”\nBenson, a native of Kensington, Md., was caught off guard when she heard the news.\n“I was in Key West fishing when my friend’s dad called me and told me,” Benson said. “I was excited.”\nBenson was a member of the Varsity Eight during the 2007-08 season for the Hoosiers and led them to wins over Dayton and Eastern Michigan. She also received First Team All-Central Region accolades last week to make her eligible for the All-American team.\nAthletes are eligible to be named All-Americans if they have first been named to their respective All-Region First team. From there, they are evaluated using boat performance, individual achievements, indoor rowing machine score, nomination rank and coach’s comments, according to a press release.\nOne of Benson’s goals is to reach a good sprinter ERG score, which is the standardized testing for the indoor rowing machine. Benson said she wants to break the seven minute mark on 2000 meters.\n“Its a team goal,” Benson said. “It’s definitely something I want to achieve.”\nPeterson has faith in his rower.\n“Ellie is strong and athletic,” Peterson said. “She brings a winning attitude, she’s always happy and really enjoys to challenge and support her teammates. She is the ideal teammate to have, especially in rowing where teamwork is so critical and invaluable.”\nThe IU rowing team is very young and is looking forward to improving on the groundwork laid by coach Peterson.\n“Our young talent is great for the future,” Peterson said. “Any coach is excited to have some of their best people in their program be young. The seniors to be were the 1st recruits the program has had and since then the talent has gotten a lot better. We’ve improved every year and have become a well respected program.”