The Lady Flames Women's Novice 4 boat took home gold at nationals
Women’s Novice 4 rowing team earns first-place finish at nationals
5/20/2025 1:04:00 PM | Rowing
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Two other Liberty boats finished Top 10 at the ACRA National Championship Regatta
Three boats from Liberty University's men's and women's rowing teams recorded strong finishes at the ACRA National Championship Regatta May 16-18 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., headlined by a first-place finish from the Women's Novice 4 squad.
Liberty's Men's Varsity Double squad
The Women's Novice 4 win marked the third national championship victory in program history and the first since 2019, when another women's Novice 4 took home gold. The Lady Flames, featuring junior coxswain Annnalise Benjamin, freshman stroke Mary May Bailey, junior Liza Perdew, senior Rebecca Couric, and sophomore Grace Cornell in the bow, cruised to victory with a time of 7:48.564, far ahead of Florida Institute of Technology (7:52.453) and Lafayette (7:53.527).
"It is great for the (rowing) program and for Liberty University to be in the podium, to be in the Grand Finals, and to be present at the regatta," Head Coach Debbie Prowse said. "It gets our name out there and will hopefully help in recruiting more student athletes."
Liberty's Women's Varsity 4 and Men's Varsity Double squads also performed well in Oak Ridge, finishing sixth and ninth, respectively, in their competitions. The Women's Varsity 4 team included junior coxswain Emily Tait, junior stroke Alayna Degan, junior Allie Reed, sophomore Elise Marsalis, and senior Kimberly Loutzenheiser in the bow. The Flames Men's Varsity Double featured junior stroke Gideon Abbott and junior Kyle Meeker in the bow.
In addition to the three boats which competed at nationals, the Flames and Lady Flames have several others who did not qualify for the event. Although Liberty's Women's Varsity 8 squad failed to earn a podium finish at the SIRA Championships in April, the team-set prerequisite for a boat to qualify for nationals, Prowse opted to condense the team to a Women's Varsity 4 squad to compete at nationals.
Liberty's Women's Varsity 4 squad
While only the Women's Novice 4 team took home gold at nationals, Prowse said everyone in the rowing program should take pride in contributing to making that finish a reality.
"We feel like everybody has a hand in that boat winning," she said. "They ultimately did it, but when we're at practice or doing a run or a row, everyone's always supporting each other. It's not just that one boat that carried us to the title. We all had a hand in it."
"This year's finish gives us really good motivation to show other athletes, and have that goal in mind (to win gold) and motivation when we return," Prowse added. "The other athletes that didn't get to go can hear the stories and experiences from the athletes that did qualify. Hopefully that will feed into the competitive nature and team building that will help us to grow and get stronger and faster for the next year."
