Two competitive rowers are speaking out about how the college bribery scandal took away spots on teams that athletes like them had dedicated thousands of hours of training - along with blood, sweat, and tears - for a chance to get.
Now Surya Murthy and Ally Stein are wondering how schools managed to overlook fake club names and obvious errors while recruiting the children of wealthy and famous parents.
Murthy, 18, and Stein, 19, were members of the Redwood Scullers, an elite rowing club in California's Bay Area.
It was the same team that Audrey Isackson claimed to be a member of when she applied for early admission to USC in 2017.
Former competitive rowers Ally Stein (left) and Surya Murthy (right) are speaking out about how the college bribery scandal took away spots on teams that athletes like them had dedicated thousands of hours of training for a chance to get
Both women questioned how USC athletic officials managed to overlook fake club names and obvious errors to give spots on the rowing team to Lori Loughlin's daughters
Neither Murphy or Stein, who were both members of the team in 2017, had ever met Audrey.
And they noted that Audrey's recruitment profile had a major error that they're shocked wasn't flagged up by anyone in USC's athletic department.
Audrey claimed to be a 'varsity 8 stroke' for the team, touting she had various 'crew honors'.
But the Redwood Scullers don't even have a varsity 8 boat, a fact that is made apparent in the club's name.
A varsity 8 boat is used in sweep rowing, where each rower only has one oar. But the Redwood Scullers compete in sculling, where each rower has two smaller oars.
'That was a straight-up lie, they weren't even trying,' Murthy told the New York Daily News. 'I thought that was almost hilarious. We never had a varsity 8. There's no background checking for that?'
Bruce Isackson, 61, and his wife Davina, 55, allegedly paid more than $600,000 in bribes to get Audrey into USC and her sister Lauren into UCLA with fake athletic credentials.
Murthy and Stein were members of the Redwood Scullers, an elite rowing club in California's Bay Area. It was the same team that Audrey Isackson (pictured right with her mother and sister) claimed to be a member of when she applied for early admission to USC in 2017
Bruce Isackson, 61, and his wife Davina, 55, (pictured with their family) allegedly paid more than $600,000 in bribes to get Audrey into USC and her sister Lauren into UCLA with fake athletic credentials
The indictment claims they paid more than $350,000 to help Audrey get into USC, bribing athletic officials and even hiring a proctor to secretly change her ACT answers so that the teen would get a higher score on the college entrance exam.
They also allegedly transferred $250,000 worth of Facebook shares to get Lauren a spot on UCLA's elite soccer team. She made no appearances and played zero minutes during the season.
The scandal has been crushing to
