15 questions with ... Jake Brewington, a Penn men's lightweight rowing sophomore

The Daily Pennsylvanian caught up with Jake Brewington of Penn men's lightweight rowing and asked him 15 questions about his time on the rowing team, his path to Penn, and his life in general. Here’s what the sophomore had to say.

1. Can you introduce yourself? 

My name is Jake Brewington, I’m from Radnor, Pa., and I’m a sophomore competing on the lightweight rowing team. 

2. What got you into rowing?

I was a swimmer in middle school, and then my high school kind of required us to do a spring sport so I tried rowing because I didn’t really have any other options. I kind of hopped in the boat and hopped on the machines, and I was pretty good at it and I liked it a lot. I kept going with it and found a lot of success with it at the high school level and then got the opportunity to row here at the collegiate level. 

3. What has been your favorite experience on the rowing team so far?

We got to spend the winter season indoors training on the machine, so my favorite moment was in about February when the spring season is starting, we go from rowing indoors to going out on the water, because then you’re in a boat with a group of guys that you’ve been training with, and you’re seeing all your hard work pay off and you’re really starting to build something for the championship season later in the spring. 

4. What does a typical day in your life look like? 

Whether it’s a scheduled practice or not, I try to get in two workout sessions per day. So, it’ll always be something in before class, if it’s practice it’ll be a 6 a.m. wake up, 6:30 a.m. bus to the river, practicing there. Otherwise, I’ll be going to our gym and getting on the rowing machine myself. So yeah, there will be a morning practice, and then go through the school day, take classes, get lunch, all that stuff, and then head to afternoon practice wherever that may be, get dinner, and then get done all of the work you can before going to bed to start it all the next day. 

5. Why did you decide to go to Penn?

Looking at all the schools that were an option for me, all the schools I was looking at had great academics, and had great rowing teams as well. But what set Penn apart was the group of guys on the team here. It was the one school where when I visited that, I really didn’t want to leave at the end of the visit because I felt like I just got along with them so well and there were so down to earth and outgoing and that’s what I wanted to be a part of. 

6. What is your go-to snack? 

I’d say the Wawa soft pretzel. It’s super cheap, it’s good nutritional value, and it’s always easy to snag anytime. 

7. Favorite dining hall on campus? 

I’d say [1920] Commons is the most reliable. I can always go in there and know I’m going get something — whereas with Hill, it’s kind of a gamble. So I’d say Commons. 

8. What is something on your bucket list? 

I’d say maybe like driving around the country, just like around different states. Nowhere in particular, just kind of going on a cross-country road trip would be cool. 

9. What was your recruiting process like? 

I think my process was generally pretty standard for lightweight rowing where, you kind of spend the end of your junior year of high school getting as many race results, score times, and time on rowing machines as you can — everything you can to impress coaches. Then if you have a decent resume, different schools will invite you to come up and visit the team and then see how you like it. At about October of my senior year, I started to finalize things, getting offers from different schools, and then kind of making the decision of where I wanted to spend the next four years.

10. What expectations do you have for yourself and the team for the upcoming season? 

I say for myself, I just sort of like to see steady improvement. It’s sort of hard to have an expectation of where you want to be in terms of what boat you’re on because that's very variable with whatever's going on, but something very concrete is the times that you get on the rowing machine. So just sort of see steady improvement like that throughout the year, then I think that'll put me in a good place this spring. As far as the expectations of the spring, we're in a very competitive league where any team can make a big push and win it all every year. So just like looking at what would be a good season for us is seeing everybody improve, seeing everybody finding success in what they want to find success in, and then having our coaches help us along the way — and you know, getting as many wins as possible this spring would obviously be the ideal.

11. If you weren’t rowing, what would you be doing with your time? 

I think about that a lot. I guess if I weren’t rowing I’d probably try and find another athletic activity to do because I find it to be a pretty enriching part of the day where, if I'm going to my first class of the day and I've already gotten a pretty solid workout in, I feel good and I feel like I'm kind of getting up and getting at it before the rest of the crowd per se. I'd say probably just doing some sort of athletic activity and organized group, just for the experience of it all. 

12. Did you ever consider doing any other sports besides rowing?

I was into swimming before rowing so I guess I’d say that but I was never really that good at it. I just found it very taxing. I was just kind of staring at the bottom of the pool the whole time and what I like about rowing more so than other sports is it's very hard nosed, you have to be very patient and it involves a lot of just kind of sitting there and working. Sitting on the machine and doing the same motion over and over again, but that repetition is what breeds success in the future and that's what I like about it.

13. Who is your biggest role model? 

I will say my biggest role model is LeBron James because of how he came back in the finals against the Golden State Warriors being three to one down — that was pretty crazy to watch.

14. If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice about anything, what would it be? 

I mean, the honest answer is row harder, try less in school — but I probably shouldn’t say that. I’d say try to care less what other people think and recognize that you're on your own journey and you know what's right for you and everything's kind of going to be okay at the end of it.

15. What is your favorite place to go in Philadelphia? 

Franklin Fountain, the ice cream shop.