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Duke Rowing Alumna Spotlight: Alex Japhet
2/18/2021 5:18:00 PM | Rowing
DURHAM, N.C. – As the 2021 Duke rowing season approaches, GoDuke.com caught up with Class of 2011 graduate Alex Japhet for the latest alumna spotlight.
Japhet, who came to Duke out of Everett, Wash., in the fall of 2007, ended her collegiate career with a resume few Blue Devils can rival. She was both a three-time CRCA All-America and three-time All-ACC selection, and in 2011 she was a member of the Team USA U23 National Team that competed at the FISA World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
But perhaps one of her greatest contributions at Duke came with an intangible element. Japhet arrived on campus during a period when the team battled for a middling position in the ACC, and with each year's results playing into the standard the program held itself to, she soon realized that it was a different environment than what she became accustomed to with the renowned Everett Rowing Association.
"I think what was hard was that I came into Duke from a team that was very competitive," Japhet said. "My learning to row was at a team that was nationally ranked, and I did not know that. As a complete novice, you could see other girls and are like, 'I want to be like them when I learn what I'm doing.' It just so happens that half of that squad was getting recruited for full-ride scholarships, they were making the junior national team, and I didn't know that. I was just like, 'I'm going to copy them until I can do what they do.' When it came to Duke, there were women who were physically stronger than me, but then when we would get on the erg and do tests and when we'd be talking about times, they were quite a ways off."
Japhet's experience and competitive drive were on display early in her career. She posted Duke's first-ever sub-seven minute time in the 2K erg challenge, but only after recording a 'disappointing' time of seven minutes flat weeks earlier. Yet even while Japhet continued pushing herself past what was easily the fastest time in the room, what became notable was the disparity in mindsets between her and other members of the team.
"It kind of felt like there was a lot of mental barrier, that somewhere along the way, someone heard that 7:20 was good and they were like, 'Cool, I go 7:20 so I'm good'," she said. "My first couple years of rowing were in an environment where it was, 'Well then go 7:19,' and then you've got to go 7:16 and then go 7:10 and if you're feeling good, go 7:05. It was such a mindset thing. That's why I think when Emily Theys ended up coming to Duke, I could tell that she was much more like me in that way."
Theys arrived at the start of Japhet's junior year and quickly established herself as a mainstay in the varisty-8 lineup. For Japhet, it was another likeminded boat mover who became essential in building the culture that is required to compete with the sport's elite. The process of getting to that status as a team, however, was elongated during Japhet's career, perhaps mainly due the NCAA reclassifying rowing from an 'individual team sport' to a 'team sport' in 2007, which dealt a major disadvantage to teams that offered front-loaded talent but lacked depth in the novice and second-varsity crews.
Another roadblock in fielding a routinely competitive squad was the variance in each rower's passion for the sport itself. For Japhet, it was apparent that a handful were willing to make the commitment to better themselves and the program, but a winning team would need that approach to permeate throughout the roster before the results would change.
"There were people who were competitive," Japhet said. "But then there were also things where you'd meet someone and say, 'How come this person doesn't want to put in the extra work to meet the goals?,' and you find out one person is putting themselves through school and they picked up a part-time job to pay for books. You can't really argue against that, but it does kind of detract from this 'We're all doing the same thing' focus."
And while the team's focus at times was to simply have enough healthy bodies to compete at a regatta, that came at the expense of building a unit that shared the common goal of improving each day.
"In rowing and all endurance sports, you deal with this," Japhet said. "People get burned out, you deal with attrition – it is part of the deal. That said, even though we were a small team, I think that sense of 'We need 20 people' meant that if there were a couple girls that were clearly unhappy, didn't like the way that they were handling the imbalance of all of their responsibilities – instead of cutting that person loose, I don't think that it was understood how detrimental keeping unhappy people around really was to the success of the squad."
By the time her senior season came around, Japhet felt that many of those imbalances "came to a head." Although it may not have been indicated right away in the team's placements at conference meets or individual awards, it served as a turning point for the culture of Duke rowing. The new approach involved building from a foundation of hungry, driven student-athletes that were 'All-in' on the team and its goals. In creating that uniformed mindset, Japhet found that the chemistry within the program grew exponentially.
"I was the only senior in my class," she said. "Once people made the changes and did what they needed to do, all of a sudden it was good vibrations and you had that positive energy where you're sitting around and you're stretching, and it's like, 'Oh, we love each other.' When someone does something funny or when someone gets an A on a paper, suddenly you're truly so excited for them."
She admitted a feeling of envy as her career wrapped up, only due to the fact that she knew what the future had in store for Duke rowing. It had gone from ensuring that there were enough of her teammates to participate at meets, to finishing a race knowing that the group she was a part of submitted its best effort, no matter the outcome. Japhet was a key piece in establishing that culture, but she would not get to experience the team success that the class below her was ready for. In the time leading up to her departure from Durham, however, she realized that serving as an example of work ethic and putting the team's improvement above all else offered its own reward while cementing her legacy in the program's history.
"I remember there being that moment of thinking, 'It doesn't matter if every single year I drop a couple seconds off my 2K – the team needs to be faster'," she said. "We needed to figure out the barriers to everyone being fast, whereas when I was a freshman, I do think that I wanted to make it clear that I'm fast. It was all about me wanting to be at the top of the record boards, and then later on it was that I want there to not be such a big gap. Yes, I want to still be at the top – I'm competitive. But we needed everyone to be right behind me, because otherwise we're not going anywhere. Leaving as the only senior and wishing I had more time here, I remember feeling, 'Maybe that is your purpose, to show people what this team could be and hope that they get there once you are gone.'"
Even though she may not have been a contributor to the results that made the Blue Devils a nationally-ranked team each year, Japhet certainly did her part in a more individual setting in the summer of 2011. When she and Theys arrived at the USRowing Women's U23 National Team Camp, there was palpable confusion as to how two of the 24 attendees came from Duke. Looking around, Japhet could see the other universities represented were, in her words, 'The usual suspects' – teams like Virginia, Michigan, Stanford and Princeton, among others.
As understandable as it may have been to become intimidated by their counterparts, Japhet and Theys saw it as an opportunity to change some of the narrative surrounding Duke rowing.
"I don't think Emily and I were that shook up about 'These girls are from UVA and Michigan'," Japhet said. "But it was kind of exciting that they were surprised that Duke had two athletes there. They were like, 'Duke's not fast,' and as a team, we kind of weren't. Our boats weren't, but we had some fast people."
By not receiving a bid to compete at the NCAA Championships during her career, Japhet and the Blue Devils found themselves racing against the same programs year after year. It became frustrating, she acknowledged, to know that the progress the team made would not be recognized when the result still listed Duke finishing behind Virginia. However, during that week of training in Oklahoma City, the pair sent notice to the NCAA rowing community that Duke was on the rise.
"The coaches definitely were like, 'If two girls from Duke made the squad and we all think Duke's slow, they're not going to be slow for long'," she said. "It was nice to hop in these boats with people and have them realize that the way we are rowing is right in line with what everyone else is doing. There was definitely that posturing and wanting to influence that script that people have about the program."
Japhet maintains that same remarkable drive in her current occupations. Working as a marketing director in the Seattle area, she finds a certain resemblance to competitive rowing that suits her professional approach.
"I think that there's definitely a type of person who is attracted to endurance sports, especially rowing," she said. "When you watch people who really thrive in those types of environments go off into the world, there are definitely some similarities of the managed chaos. There's the repetition, but it's always a little different and there's definitely a lot of parallels in being a self-starter but also thriving in being in that social pressure that comes from working with other people."
Her love for rowing never wavered, even in the midst of the current pandemic. When the Pocock Rowing Center – the club which she competes with – closed its boathouse in March of 2020, the group found new ways to stay active, communal, and of course, competitive.
"We have a spreadsheet where different activities have different point allocations. There's bonuses for if you go do your jumpies in someone's front yard or something – it keeps it kind of social."
As Japhet's career beyond Duke continues to unfold, her accomplishments in Durham are visible to this day. She may not have had the opportunity to don the blue and white on a national stage, but the foundation of the program – the intense desire to improve constantly and the comradery among teammates with a common goal – can be traced back to Alex Japhet.
"It was so exciting to see this team turn this corner," she recalls. "There was no boathouse when I was there. It was this shack in the woods and we'd find snakes. There were so many things about the Duke experience that when I read about it now and try to keep up with the team, I'm very impressed and excited for them.
"I think it's easy to think that the team went from being bad to good, and that's where I kind of want to be like, 'It's not quite that simple.' Before you have a fast team, you have fast people. It's that tipping point."
#GoDuke
Japhet, who came to Duke out of Everett, Wash., in the fall of 2007, ended her collegiate career with a resume few Blue Devils can rival. She was both a three-time CRCA All-America and three-time All-ACC selection, and in 2011 she was a member of the Team USA U23 National Team that competed at the FISA World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
But perhaps one of her greatest contributions at Duke came with an intangible element. Japhet arrived on campus during a period when the team battled for a middling position in the ACC, and with each year's results playing into the standard the program held itself to, she soon realized that it was a different environment than what she became accustomed to with the renowned Everett Rowing Association.
"I think what was hard was that I came into Duke from a team that was very competitive," Japhet said. "My learning to row was at a team that was nationally ranked, and I did not know that. As a complete novice, you could see other girls and are like, 'I want to be like them when I learn what I'm doing.' It just so happens that half of that squad was getting recruited for full-ride scholarships, they were making the junior national team, and I didn't know that. I was just like, 'I'm going to copy them until I can do what they do.' When it came to Duke, there were women who were physically stronger than me, but then when we would get on the erg and do tests and when we'd be talking about times, they were quite a ways off."
Japhet's experience and competitive drive were on display early in her career. She posted Duke's first-ever sub-seven minute time in the 2K erg challenge, but only after recording a 'disappointing' time of seven minutes flat weeks earlier. Yet even while Japhet continued pushing herself past what was easily the fastest time in the room, what became notable was the disparity in mindsets between her and other members of the team.
"It kind of felt like there was a lot of mental barrier, that somewhere along the way, someone heard that 7:20 was good and they were like, 'Cool, I go 7:20 so I'm good'," she said. "My first couple years of rowing were in an environment where it was, 'Well then go 7:19,' and then you've got to go 7:16 and then go 7:10 and if you're feeling good, go 7:05. It was such a mindset thing. That's why I think when Emily Theys ended up coming to Duke, I could tell that she was much more like me in that way."
Theys arrived at the start of Japhet's junior year and quickly established herself as a mainstay in the varisty-8 lineup. For Japhet, it was another likeminded boat mover who became essential in building the culture that is required to compete with the sport's elite. The process of getting to that status as a team, however, was elongated during Japhet's career, perhaps mainly due the NCAA reclassifying rowing from an 'individual team sport' to a 'team sport' in 2007, which dealt a major disadvantage to teams that offered front-loaded talent but lacked depth in the novice and second-varsity crews.
Another roadblock in fielding a routinely competitive squad was the variance in each rower's passion for the sport itself. For Japhet, it was apparent that a handful were willing to make the commitment to better themselves and the program, but a winning team would need that approach to permeate throughout the roster before the results would change.
"There were people who were competitive," Japhet said. "But then there were also things where you'd meet someone and say, 'How come this person doesn't want to put in the extra work to meet the goals?,' and you find out one person is putting themselves through school and they picked up a part-time job to pay for books. You can't really argue against that, but it does kind of detract from this 'We're all doing the same thing' focus."
And while the team's focus at times was to simply have enough healthy bodies to compete at a regatta, that came at the expense of building a unit that shared the common goal of improving each day.
"In rowing and all endurance sports, you deal with this," Japhet said. "People get burned out, you deal with attrition – it is part of the deal. That said, even though we were a small team, I think that sense of 'We need 20 people' meant that if there were a couple girls that were clearly unhappy, didn't like the way that they were handling the imbalance of all of their responsibilities – instead of cutting that person loose, I don't think that it was understood how detrimental keeping unhappy people around really was to the success of the squad."
By the time her senior season came around, Japhet felt that many of those imbalances "came to a head." Although it may not have been indicated right away in the team's placements at conference meets or individual awards, it served as a turning point for the culture of Duke rowing. The new approach involved building from a foundation of hungry, driven student-athletes that were 'All-in' on the team and its goals. In creating that uniformed mindset, Japhet found that the chemistry within the program grew exponentially.
"I was the only senior in my class," she said. "Once people made the changes and did what they needed to do, all of a sudden it was good vibrations and you had that positive energy where you're sitting around and you're stretching, and it's like, 'Oh, we love each other.' When someone does something funny or when someone gets an A on a paper, suddenly you're truly so excited for them."
She admitted a feeling of envy as her career wrapped up, only due to the fact that she knew what the future had in store for Duke rowing. It had gone from ensuring that there were enough of her teammates to participate at meets, to finishing a race knowing that the group she was a part of submitted its best effort, no matter the outcome. Japhet was a key piece in establishing that culture, but she would not get to experience the team success that the class below her was ready for. In the time leading up to her departure from Durham, however, she realized that serving as an example of work ethic and putting the team's improvement above all else offered its own reward while cementing her legacy in the program's history.
"I remember there being that moment of thinking, 'It doesn't matter if every single year I drop a couple seconds off my 2K – the team needs to be faster'," she said. "We needed to figure out the barriers to everyone being fast, whereas when I was a freshman, I do think that I wanted to make it clear that I'm fast. It was all about me wanting to be at the top of the record boards, and then later on it was that I want there to not be such a big gap. Yes, I want to still be at the top – I'm competitive. But we needed everyone to be right behind me, because otherwise we're not going anywhere. Leaving as the only senior and wishing I had more time here, I remember feeling, 'Maybe that is your purpose, to show people what this team could be and hope that they get there once you are gone.'"
Even though she may not have been a contributor to the results that made the Blue Devils a nationally-ranked team each year, Japhet certainly did her part in a more individual setting in the summer of 2011. When she and Theys arrived at the USRowing Women's U23 National Team Camp, there was palpable confusion as to how two of the 24 attendees came from Duke. Looking around, Japhet could see the other universities represented were, in her words, 'The usual suspects' – teams like Virginia, Michigan, Stanford and Princeton, among others.
As understandable as it may have been to become intimidated by their counterparts, Japhet and Theys saw it as an opportunity to change some of the narrative surrounding Duke rowing.
"I don't think Emily and I were that shook up about 'These girls are from UVA and Michigan'," Japhet said. "But it was kind of exciting that they were surprised that Duke had two athletes there. They were like, 'Duke's not fast,' and as a team, we kind of weren't. Our boats weren't, but we had some fast people."
By not receiving a bid to compete at the NCAA Championships during her career, Japhet and the Blue Devils found themselves racing against the same programs year after year. It became frustrating, she acknowledged, to know that the progress the team made would not be recognized when the result still listed Duke finishing behind Virginia. However, during that week of training in Oklahoma City, the pair sent notice to the NCAA rowing community that Duke was on the rise.
"The coaches definitely were like, 'If two girls from Duke made the squad and we all think Duke's slow, they're not going to be slow for long'," she said. "It was nice to hop in these boats with people and have them realize that the way we are rowing is right in line with what everyone else is doing. There was definitely that posturing and wanting to influence that script that people have about the program."
Japhet maintains that same remarkable drive in her current occupations. Working as a marketing director in the Seattle area, she finds a certain resemblance to competitive rowing that suits her professional approach.
"I think that there's definitely a type of person who is attracted to endurance sports, especially rowing," she said. "When you watch people who really thrive in those types of environments go off into the world, there are definitely some similarities of the managed chaos. There's the repetition, but it's always a little different and there's definitely a lot of parallels in being a self-starter but also thriving in being in that social pressure that comes from working with other people."
Her love for rowing never wavered, even in the midst of the current pandemic. When the Pocock Rowing Center – the club which she competes with – closed its boathouse in March of 2020, the group found new ways to stay active, communal, and of course, competitive.
"We have a spreadsheet where different activities have different point allocations. There's bonuses for if you go do your jumpies in someone's front yard or something – it keeps it kind of social."
As Japhet's career beyond Duke continues to unfold, her accomplishments in Durham are visible to this day. She may not have had the opportunity to don the blue and white on a national stage, but the foundation of the program – the intense desire to improve constantly and the comradery among teammates with a common goal – can be traced back to Alex Japhet.
"It was so exciting to see this team turn this corner," she recalls. "There was no boathouse when I was there. It was this shack in the woods and we'd find snakes. There were so many things about the Duke experience that when I read about it now and try to keep up with the team, I'm very impressed and excited for them.
"I think it's easy to think that the team went from being bad to good, and that's where I kind of want to be like, 'It's not quite that simple.' Before you have a fast team, you have fast people. It's that tipping point."
#GoDuke
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