The Tufts wall−sit record has been crushed once again — and this time, it's a woman who has earned the illustrious honor of being wall−sit champion.
Junior Bri Cilley, an outfielder on the softball team, wall−sat on Friday for an astounding one hour, six minutes and 22 seconds.
"I did not intend to break any record, but we were having a competition with the women's tennis team and I didn't want to lose," Cilley said. "We hit the 42−minute [record] and figured we might as well just break it."
The Daily reported in October that senior Eugene Kim had set a new wall−sit record of 25 minutes that shocked the Tufts athletic world. But just a month later, freshman Ernie Melero raised the bar to 42 minutes, 26 seconds.
Now, five female Jumbos have gotten into the mix. Freshman Lauren Giglio, sophomores Rebecca DiBiase and Janice Lam and junior Lena Cantone all broke Melero's record, with Lam as the lone tennis player to complete the challenge.
It shouldn't be surprising that a female holds the current record. The Guinness World Record in the discipline — 11 hours, 51 minutes — is also held by a woman — Dr. Thienna Ho. But Cilley's time is still jaw−dropping, at least to the Jumbos training staff.
"It is absolutely crazy," strength coach Marten Vandervelde, who officiated the contest, said. "It's f−−−−−− absurd. I don't think anyone will want to break the record anymore."
Kim, however, has yet to attempt a second wall−sit and has been quoted as saying that he is confident that he can last for at least an hour.
Stay tuned to tuftsdaily.com for more on this story, as before the end of the semester, we plan to stage the ultimate wall−sit showdown, complete with video, pre−game and post−game coverage.
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