The Continuing Rise of Club Rowing: ACRA National Championship

The 2024 American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta showcased nearly 2,000 athletes from 76 collegiate club programs from around the country vying for national titles, with a record number of entries on both the men’s and women’s sides.

“We can safely say we have rebounded from Covid and we are again the largest collegiate regatta in the U.S.,” proclaimed  Gregg Hartsuff, head coach of men’s rowing at the University of Michigan and a former president and now secretary of ACRA, at the annual meeting.

“The state of club rowing is strong and seems to be getting better,” declared Dan Wolleben, president of ACRA and head coach of the Bucknell University men.

Indeed, the increasing depth of collegiate club racing was on vivid display at this year’s championship regatta, where there were first-time winners in the men’s varsity eight, women’s varsity eight, men’s team points, and several other events. Parity across the field showed, with 12 different programs winning the 13 men’s events and seven distinct teams winning the eight women’s events.

“Nobody is going to sweep the ACRA regatta, but everyone is going to get some great racing,” Wolleben said. “This is the main reason the regatta continues to grow—the athletes have something to set their sights on at the end of the season, they know they will get good racing in against great competition, and they can work toward program progress in the events that they enter from year to year.”

That competitiveness extends throughout the field. Five of the last seven races at this year’s regatta—the men’s varsity eight A, B, C, and D finals as well as the A, B, and C women’s varsity eight finals—featured at least one official photo finish on the HereNow results.

On the women’s side, Vanderbilt beat Purdue to the line by less than three-tenths of a second, avenging last year’s silver medal and winning its first-ever ACRA varsity eight gold medal.

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

The Commodores placed three women’s boats in the grand finals, as their single finished fourth and their pair finished sixth.

Miller knew throughout the year this group of athletes was unique.

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

“We tried a few different combinations over the spring and felt like we had a solid lineup finalized about six days before we loaded the trailer for ACRA. The eight did a great job staying loose but focused once we arrived in Oak Ridge and built some solid momentum over the course of the weekend.”

It was a record-setting day for not just the Vanderbilt women but the entire team.

“We operate as one program,” Miller explained, “so it was also great to have the men’s quad and men’s frosh four both earn silver, especially since those two boats and the women’s eight were battling it out everyday in practice on Percy Priest. The eight’s winning also put us in the top 10 in team points for the first time in the history of our program, which was an even better way to cap the weekend.”

The men’s varsity eight final was no less thrilling, as Notre Dame won its first-ever ACRA championship by 1.5 seconds. Just behind them, Virginia defeated defending champ UCLA by a mere four-tenths of a second.

Quinn Klocke, head coach of the Notre Dame men, credits the team success to a clear focus on winning this very race for years.

“We haven’t shied away from talking about winning ACRA over the past couple of years, even when we were still building the necessary speed,” Klocke said. “Our team culture has been built around the idea that results are a self-determined outcome, so winning this year validated that process, not just from a rowing perspective but also generally.

“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 eight that placed third at ACRA, and each made massive strides both physiologically and technically. That group’s ownership, along with the addition of some newcomers, led to a level of commitment to the process that allowed us to overcome the challenges of this year.”

The Fighting Irish crew featured the most recognizable athlete at the regatta, Joe Kiely, who finished second in the world at the 2023 World Rowing Under 23 Championship in the U.S. eight. The crew also had a true novice freshman, Aidan Walsh, proving that classic novice rowing, while fading at the NCAA and IRA level, is alive and well in club rowing.

It was also a good year to be a Boilermaker, as Purdue took home both the men’s and women’s points trophies. The victory by the men was unprecedented; they ended Michigan’s dominance of the points trophy after the Wolverines had won every one since the founding of the regatta in 2008. The Boilermakers halted that run after a big jump from fifth in the 2023 standings.

The Purdue women saw an even bigger improvement, as they catapulted from eighth in 2023 to the top of the standings at this year’s regatta.

It’s not only the Texas women who are experiencing rowing success. The Longhorn men won the ACRA men’s small-boat team championship, awarded to the best performers in fours, quads, pairs, doubles, and singles, for the second year in a row.

Speaking of small boats, persistence was rewarded at this year’s ACRA championship in the singles events. Sydney Deaton from Clemson and Ethan Penny from High Point won the women’s and men’s events respectively. Both Deaton and Penny finished third in the same events last year and came back this year to claim the top spot.

The club rowing world is healthy and growing at the ACRA championship, which in many ways represents the traditional heart and values of rowing better than anywhere else in collegiate rowing. Athletes are committed and humble. Some arrive on their college campuses with high-school experience, but many are discovering the sport at activities fairs and when current team members spot their height from across the quad and invite them to the boathouse.

Coaches are engaged with their athletes as well as with their larger rowing communities.

“The entire coaching staff and I are just so appreciative of the people who helped make this happen,” Miller said. “It starts with the athletes, of course. Then it’s the alums, friends of the program, our advocates at the university, and the masters at Nashville Rowing who share our water and the course with us in the morning.”

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