Rowing News | The continued rise of club rowing: ACRA National Championship

“We can safely say that we have recovered from Covid and are once again the largest college regatta in the USA,” announced Gregg Hartsuff, head coach of men’s rowing at the University of Michigan and former president and current secretary of the ACRA, at the annual meeting.

“The state of club rowing is good and appears to be improving,” said Dan Wolleben, president of the ACRA and head coach of the men at Bucknell University.

In fact, the increasing strength of collegiate club racing was evident at this year’s championship regatta, which featured first-time winners in the men’s eight, women’s eight, men’s team points and several other events. It was a tie across the field, with 12 different programs winning the 13 men’s events and seven different teams winning the eight women’s events.

“Nobody is going to win the ACRA Regatta, but everyone is going to experience great racing,” said Wolleben. “That’s the main reason the Regatta continues to grow – the athletes have a goal to focus on at the end of the season, they know they’re going to race well against great competition, and they can work on developing their program from year to year for the events they compete in.”

This competitiveness extends across the entire field, with five of the final seven races of this year’s regatta – the Men’s Eights A, B, C and D finals and the Women’s Eights A, B and C finals – featuring at least one official photo finish in the HereNow results.

In the women’s event, Vanderbilt beat Purdue by less than three-tenths of a second, avenging last year’s silver medal and winning its first gold medal in the ACRA Varsity Eight.

“Winning the women’s eight was huge for our program,” said Jon Miller, Vanderbilt men’s and women’s head coach. “It’s been a blast overall. The ladies were excited to see how many boats we could get to the finals and if we could win gold in the eight after our silver at ACRA in 2023.”

The Commodores placed three women’s boats in the grand final: their singles came fourth and their doubles came sixth.

Miller knew all year that this group of athletes was unique.

“This boat was a special group,” he said. “It was led by a strong group of seniors, but each individual athlete played an integral role in the success of the season and the weekend at Oak Ridge.”

“We tried a few different combinations over the course of the spring and felt like we had a solid lineup about six days before loading the trailer for ACRA. The eight did a great job of staying loose but focused once we got to Oak Ridge and were able to build solid momentum over the course of the weekend.”

It was a record day not only for the Vanderbilt women, but for the entire team.

“We work as one program,” Miller explained, “so it was great to see the men’s four and the men’s four both take silver in their first year, especially since those two boats and the women’s eight were battling for the win every day in practice on Percy Priest. The eight’s win also put us in the top 10 in team points for the first time in our program’s history, which was an even better way to end the weekend.”

The men’s eight-man final was no less exciting, as Notre Dame won its first ACRA title by 1.5 seconds. Close behind, Virginia defeated defending champion UCLA by just four-tenths of a second.

Notre Dame men’s head coach Quinn Klocke attributes the team’s success to years of clear focus on winning this very race.

“We have not shied away from talking about winning the ACRA in recent years, even when we were still building the speed needed,” Klocke said. “Our team culture is based on the idea that results are a self-determined outcome and winning this year has validated that process, not just from a rowing perspective but also in general.

“This group bought into the idea that their competitive advantage would come from the quantity and quality of their training. Six guys returned from the 2023 varsity team that placed third at ACRA, and each of them made tremendous progress both physiologically and technically. The ownership of this group and the addition of some newcomers resulted in a level of commitment to the process that allowed us to overcome the challenges of this year.”

The Fighting Irish crew featured the regatta’s most famous athlete, Joe Kiely, who finished second in the world rankings in the U.S. eight at the 2023 World Rowing U23 Championships. The crew also had a true freshman, Aidan Walsh, who proved that classic novice rowing, although declining in importance at the NCAA and IRA levels, is alive and well in club rowing.

It was also a good year for the Boilermakers, as Purdue took both the men’s and women’s points trophies. The men’s victory was unprecedented; it ended Michigan’s dominance of the points trophies after the Wolverines had won them all since the regatta’s inception in 2008. The Boilermakers stopped that run after a big jump from fifth place in the 2023 standings.

An even greater improvement was seen by the Purdue women, who catapulted from eighth place in 2023 to the top of the rankings at this year’s regatta.

Texas women aren’t the only ones who are rowing successfully. Longhorn men have won the ACRA Small Boat Team Championship, awarded to the best fours, foursomes, pairs, doubles and singles, for the second year in a row.

Speaking of small boats, perseverance was rewarded in the individual events at this year’s ACRA Championship. Sydney Deaton of Clemson and Ethan Penny of High Point won the women’s and men’s events, respectively. Both Deaton and Penny took third place in the same events last year and took first place this year.

The world of club rowing is healthy and growing at the ACRA Championship, which in many ways represents the traditional heart and values ​​of rowing better than any other collegiate rowing sport. The athletes are dedicated and humble. Some come to their college campus with high school experience, but many discover the sport at activity fairs and when current team members recognize their greatness from across campus and invite them to the boathouse.

Coaches are committed to both their athletes and their larger rowing communities.

“The entire coaching staff and I are so grateful to the people who made this possible,” Miller said. “It starts with the athletes, of course. Then there are the alumni, friends of the program, our advocates at the university and the champions of Nashville Rowing who share our water and course with us in the mornings.”