Rowers go against the flow at Richmond Chase

Sunday, October 26

Richmond, VA

9:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Rocketts Landing Rowing Regatta

Liberty's men's and women's rowing teams have practiced out of their boathouse at Smith Mountain Lake and after excelling agaist a smaller number of boats at the Richmond Chase, they are ready to take on a larger field of competition at this Saturday's Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tenn.

10/30/2025 5:52:00 PM | Rowing

Liberty’s Women’s Varsity 8 and Men’s Novice 4 boats both captured gold medals competing in a small regatta field.

Rowing against a slight current in a slow-moving stretch of the James River, Liberty University's rowing team sent four boats and claimed two gold medals in 5,000-meter races at Sunday's Richmond Chase Regatta at Rocketts Landing in Richmond, Va.

"We're used to racing on still water (out of their boathouse at Smith Mountain Lake), but our boats were holding pretty decent splits despite the current," Liberty Head Coach Debbie Prowse said. "It was a beautiful day with very low wind, which is always nice on race day, and only a little bit of a current."

Liberty's Women's Varsity 8 struck gold with a time of 18 minutes, 51 seconds, followed by host Virginia Commonwealth University (second in 19:36), the College of William & Mary (third in 19:42), George Mason University, and North Carolina State University.

That boat featured junior Grace Cornell at bow; junior rowers Liza Perdew, Caitlin Kinsella and Mary Bailey as well as sophomore Olivia Henderson, freshman Lily Connor, and senior Rebecca Couric; senior Allie Reed at stroke; and senior Annalise Benjamin at coxswain.

Liberty's Men's Novice 4 crew also finished first with Owen O'Connor, a freshman from Puerto Rico, in the bow seat followed by sophomores Cooper Fitch and Gavin Padley and freshman Jeremiah Carter as rowers, and junior Rory Shuck at coxswain. The Flames completed the course in 20:25, followed by George Mason (20:44) and VCU (22:52).

The Lady Flames' Novice 8 boat, which placed second in 21:53, had Ashlyn Leininger in the bow seat followed by fellow freshman rower Gabrielle Buckles, sophomore Angelique Buntin, freshmen Claire Black and Reagan Horcher, and sophomores Lauren Norton and Jacqueline Jurgovan, junior Sarah Grassman at stroke, and graduate Arianna Davis at coxswain. William & Mary's boat won the race in 21:33 with VCU finishing third in 22:18.

Liberty's men's Varsity 4 placed fourth out of six boats in 19:20 with freshman Aiden Lovelace in the bow seat followed by seniors Kyle Meeker, Nick Belzer, stroke Gideon Abbott, and coxswain Emily Tait. The Flames finished behind two boats from George Mason and one from VCU, beating the other Rams crew and one from the University of North Carolina.

"We were pretty happy with our results," Prowse said. "We had good races and went home with some medals, which is always fun. It was our novice teams' first races, and they were very, very well prepared for what to expect and handled things very well."

The Flames and Lady Flames have a 34-rower roster — about the same as last year's team — after graduating seven seniors, returning 18 underclassmen, and bringing in 16 recruits after tryouts in September, enough to crew a Women's Novice 8 and Men's Novice 4.
Prowse promoted three of her newcomers straight to the Women's Varsity 8 (Connor and Henderson) and Men's Varsity 4 (Lovelace) as they came aboard with prior rowing experience.

This Saturday, for the first time since 2019, Liberty will travel to the Head of the Hooch on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tenn., which is probably the largest head race in the South.

"My seniors who have been rowing for four years requested to go," Prowse said. "It will be very competitive with lots of boats, and we are looking forward to racing down there."

It is a varsity-only race, so she will enter the two varsity squads as well as a Women's Varsity Double with Kinsella in the bow seat and Henderson at stroke.

Prowse said the fall semester has a very concentrated schedule, with the Nov. 8 Head of the South on Lake Lanier in Augusta, Ga., the final 5,000-meter regatta before the team resumes racing in late March.

"The way we have it structured, we had a lot of practice at the beginning followed by three races in a row on consecutive weekends," she said. "We had lots of good practice leading up to (the Richmond Chase) and were able to work on the technical aspects of the sport, building an aerobic base, learning efficiency of the stroke. Then, after we break for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will be ready to hit the water again the last week of February or first of March, and we would like to get five races in the spring before the ACRA (National Championships)."

She noted the team will start training indoors on the 30 erg rowing machines set up in the Club Sports Training Complex on the day the student-athletes return from Christmas Break in mid-January.

"Everybody on the team that's a rower has a rowing machine assigned to them, so we don't have to share or cut workouts short," Prowse said.
Tentative 1,500-meter regattas planned for the spring semester include the John Ferriss Lanier Sprints Regatta in Georgia in March, the Clemson Sprints in South Carolina, MACCC in Fairfax Station, Va., and James River Sprints at Robious Landing in Richmond, and the SIRA Championships at Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in April, to prepare for ACRAs.

Last spring, based on their podium finishes at the SIRA Championships, the Flames and Lady Flames entered three boats at the ACRAs: a Men's Double, Women's Varsity 8, and Women's Novice 4, which earned a gold medal. All five members of that boat — Benjamin, Bailey, Couric, Cornell, and Perdew — are now rowing on the Women's Varsity 8.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer