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Henley Royal 2025

We got five USA winners on the Fourth of July–six counting the US-based Stanford internationals racing as the Redwood Scullers quad–and that sends us into the weekend still with a chance to see a fistful of US finals…if Saturday goes well, that is. Let’s catch up on what came by the Enclosures on Day 4. […]

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Henley Royal 2025

We got five USA winners on the Fourth of July–six counting the US-based Stanford internationals racing as the Redwood Scullers quad–and that sends us into the weekend still with a chance to see a fistful of US finals…if Saturday goes well, that is.

Let’s catch up on what came by the Enclosures on Day 4.

Who Moved On

The fast Fourth crews were

  • the Dartmouth Heavies in the Ladies
  • the Rutgers Women in the Island
  • the Harvard Lights in the Temple
  • the Redwood Scullers quad
  • Princeton Heavies Chute and Bell in the pair
  • and the US Olympian pair of Claire Collins and Maddie Wanamaker from the New York AC
Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

You can watch race by race replays here on Youtube, or catch up with the Day 4 Highlights video.

You can also read the Regatta’s notes on the Friday races here.

First on the Fourth for the Fiftieth

Not much better than a Henley win on the Fourth of July, and the Rutgers women just keep pouring on the gas here in the Island as they burn through the draw. Today’s victim was the Dutch student crew Laga.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

We asked Rutgers two seat Ruby Hatfield what it felt like to race–and win–on Independence Day.

“It was pretty surreal, she said. “It’s a different place for us to be, on the course here in England, and a lot of us were listening to classics like ‘Born in the USA’ today to help us get ready for the race.

“But we were just taking it all in, like we’ve done that all week. Then as we were heading up to the start, we saw the flyover and that was pretty incredible.

“We were all locked into the person in front of us, and all of a sudden, the sky started to go a bit pink, and the corner of our eye, we looked up, and there was six or eight jets going over.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

“That got us hyped and ready to race, because, after that, it seemed like any tension that was in the boat just dispersed, and we were ready to go.”

Watching the race in the launch, with current RU head coach Justin Price, was the team’s very first coach from fifty years ago, Bill Wilbur. Now retired, Wilbur is a Rutgers alum himself, and coached the team that the Rutgers women started in 1975 with Bill Leavitt’s help for a few years while he finished up grad school in New Brunswick.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

Coach Wilbur, right, with Rutgers assistant coach Shannon Haines

(Fun fact: Wilbur is himself a red box winner here at Henley: he rowed in the W&L schoolboy crew that won the PE in 1969)

The Rutgers semi-final, against Durham A, is set for 12:40 EDT.

Finally Getting to Rip It

It is always a long wait through the week for the Ladies Plate crews; even with a relatively big subscription this year–of eight crews–Friday was finally day one, with a full set of quarter-finals.

We asked Dartmouth captain Munroe Robinson how it felt to finally get the chance to give it a rip for real.

“It’s awesome,” he said.

“We’ve been sharpening for about a week and getting used to the water. It was a bit rough at the start, but I think we’ve got used to the wakes going by and, then the headwind was a bit of an adjustment today as well, but we certainly sharpened together and we put down a good piece today.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

The Dartmouth 1V breaking it down post-race with coach Wyatt Allen

“We’ve been hitting our stride recently,” Robinson added. “On some of the pieces we did before today, we had some pretty solid times that we were excited about and we saw it in the racing.

The Dartmouth eight is fully intact here: the same crew that raced to bronze at the IRA behind Washington and Harvard.

“We have the utmost trust in each other as a boat,” Robinson said ,about the advantage of having a full season together. “We know that when it gets hard, everyone’s going to, sharpen up and throw as much as they’ve got at it.

“We’re kind of known as like a second half crew, so when it gets hard and when we might maybe be in a bad spot, we know we can just throw everything we’ve got at it and get after it together.”

Dartmouth gets Leander tomorrow at 7:24 EDT, if you are up early–and will be looking to make it to Sunday and the chance to win the Ladies Plate for the US like Princeton did last year.

HRR’s Sister Act

As noted yesterday, the “all USA on the Fourth” matchup between the Harvard Lights and Virginia featured what has to be a first: sisters Anya and Celia Chang coxing against each other in Temple Cup quarterfinal.

Anya’s Harvard crew took the race by the horns, with an aggressive start into a gusty headwind, so she will–and her crew–will be the ones to move on, but we caught up with them both in the Boat Tents to ask what it was like to face off against a sibling between the Henley booms.

“During the race, it felt like a normal race to me,” said Anya. “I didn’t process that they were anything other than just another competitor, but before the race it was really fun, because on the start line, I got to look over and wave at her and same at the finish.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

Anya Chang with her Harvard crew

“We had thought about this as a possibility,” added Celia, “just because we’ve known for a while that we were both going to Henley, but the actual chances that it would happen were so low.”

“On the starting line, I was just thinking, this is such a cool moment for us and for both of our teams, getting to race another crew that we wouldn’t normally ever get to race.”

Turns out the two had never raced each other before, and interestingly it was younger sister Celia who got the coxing bug first, joining the Noble and Greenough team in high school. Anya was thinking about following her lead a year later, but COVID intervened before she could start. When she finally walked-on at Harvard, Celia was already had a few years under her belt.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

Celia Chang with her Virginia crew

To see if Celia might have any good semifinal advice for her sister, we asked her how she would approach racing on the Saturday had her crew won today.

“Saturday at Henley is one of the most exciting days,” Celia said, “because there’s just so many more fans there and there’s way fewer boats in the boat tent, so it feels a bit more intimidating.

“I would take the next few hours to debrief from this race. Then just think about how exciting it is to make it to Saturday, how special that is, and make sure the crew stays internal and doesn’t get comfortable with how they did in this race. But Saturday’s always fun, so I would be very excited.”

Anya thought that was great advice.

“We try to take everything day by day in general during our season, she said, “and Henley is certainly no exception, so we are going to keep our mindset cool and calm. It’s just ‘on to the next day.'”

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

HVL grabbing the lead

That next day for these Harvard Lightweights will see them the same Nereus crew that saw the Harvard 2V lights off on Thursday. They will race at 10:36am local time for a shot at racing on the Sunday.

(that might be pretty early for folks enjoying the Fourth stateside, but will almost certainly be worth a watch on the replay link above once posted)

On to Watching the Saturday

If you are all caught up here, then it might already be time to tune in to the livestream to see what’s on.

Notes from the Banks

DVDs Do Live On – We spotted Greg Searle using Matt Pinsent’s DVD case hack for the program in his umpire’s launch, and his comment was, “Yes, DVD’s do live on.” Turns out this hack is pretty useful even on a non-rainy day: it keeps you on the right page in the breeze, and also make sure that your program can’t blow overboard mid-race.

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

Running It Back, A Day Early – Shiplake will taking on St. Paul’s in a PE semi tomorrow, a sure to be fire replay of last year’s final one day early—-thanks to the whims of The Draw. The other semi will feature Radley–who beat Marin, the last US crew in the event, today–and Hampton…whose win over St. Edward’s had Martin Cross, who teaches at the school–so excited that he ran out of the commentary box to give the crew a huzzah, and say ‘Well Rowed’ to Teddys.

Local Knowledge – The premier Shiplake fan on the banks–who makes our galleries pretty much every year–is feeling pretty good about his school’s chances as both their schoolboy and schoolgirl eight march through the draw: “I feel like it’s going to be a very good year for Shiplake,” he told row2k with a wink.

Best (Race) for Last – the final race of the day was indeed a doozy, with HOCR champ and rising NZL sculler Finn Hamill rowing down and then knocking out NED’s Simon Van Dorp, the Olympic bronze medalist who won gold at the Varese World Cup…AND Hamill is doubling up in the 2x event, so this was his second race of the day…AND he will have another round in the 2x tomorrow before he faces off against the Paris champion, Ollie Zeidler.

Bonus Fly-over Photos

Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday
Henley Royal 2025: A Fired Up Friday

College Sports

FS1 reportedly cancels three weekday shows, Joy Taylor departs network

One year after revamping its programming lineup with the additions of “Breakfast Ball” and “The Facility,” Fox Sports has canceled both shows and “Speak” in a shake-up that will also result in the exit of Joy Taylor. According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Fox Sports has canceled both “Breakfast Ball” and “The Facility” — […]

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One year after revamping its programming lineup with the additions of “Breakfast Ball” and “The Facility,” Fox Sports has canceled both shows and “Speak” in a shake-up that will also result in the exit of Joy Taylor.

According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Fox Sports has canceled both “Breakfast Ball” and “The Facility” — which were added to the schedule to replace the canceled Skip Bayless vehicle “Undisputed” — as well as the longer-running afternoon program, “Speak,” featuring Joy Taylor, Paul Pierce and Keyshawn Johnson. Taylor is said to no longer be with the company with the expiration of her contract.

Last year, Taylor was accused in a broader 42-page lawsuit against Fox Sports and then-executive Charlie Dixon of creating a hostile work environment. Taylor subsequently denied the allegations made against her. During a recent appearance on Power 105.1 FM’s “The Breakfast Club,” she explained that they were “in the process of things right now” regarding her contract.

Marchand divulged that FS1 will likely be creating new shows in place of these cancellations and that “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “First Things First” will be continuing in their timeslots. On top of that, host Craig Carton could opt to make a return to WFAN, where he starred on morning and afternoon drive shows for over a decade. Chris Oliviero, who brought Carton to the station after he served time in prison for fraud, was recently promoted to serve as the chief business officer of Audacy and has oversight of WFAN.

Carton worked with Danny Parkins and Mark Schlereth on “Breakfast Ball,” which aired in the mornings from New York City. The network then shifted its programming to Los Angeles with “The Facility,” which included Emmanuel Acho,Chase Daniel, James Jones and LeSean McCoy.There are no details regarding the contracts or future of these on-air talents, nor if they could be part of new programming iterations.



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U.S. Classic gymnastics 2025: field of gymnasts, how to watch, schedule

The U.S. Classic, the top tune-up meet for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, airs live on CNBC and Peacock on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. NBC airs highlights Sunday at 4 p.m. ET. Hezly Rivera, the youngest member of the 2024 Olympic champion team, headlines the field that will compete in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Rivera, now […]

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The U.S. Classic, the top tune-up meet for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, airs live on CNBC and Peacock on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

NBC airs highlights Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.

Hezly Rivera, the youngest member of the 2024 Olympic champion team, headlines the field that will compete in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Rivera, now 17, is joined by 2024 Olympic alternates Leanne Wong, Joscelyn Roberson and Tiana Sumanasekera.

Plus Jayla Hang, who won the Pan American all-around title in June over a field that included Rivera.

Traditionally, not all of the top gymnasts compete on all four events at Classic, though at least Rivera is expected to do so.

Gymnasts are preparing for the U.S. Championships from Aug. 7-10 in New Orleans.

Then a two-day selection competition in early autumn determines the four-woman team for the World Championships in October in Indonesia.

Simone Biles won five of the last six U.S. Classic meets dating to 2018, with Wong taking the other in 2022 during Biles’ break from competition. Biles is now on another break from competition and has not announced whether she plans to return to bid for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

2025 U.S. Classic Gymnastics Field

Gymnasts are split between two sessions — the first on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on the USA Gymnastics YouTube page and the second at 8 p.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock.

Sage Bradford (Session 1)
Harlow Buddendeck (1)
Dulcy Caylor (2)
Ally Damelio (1)
Jordis Eichman (1)
Reese Esponda (1)
Catherine Guy (1)
Jayla Hang (2)
Gabrielle Hardie (2)
Myli Lew (2)
Nola Matthews (2)
Annalisa Milton (2)
Malea Milton (1)
Avery Moll (1)
Claire Pease (2)
Brooke Pierson (1)
Hezly Rivera (2)
Joscelyn Roberson (2)
Alessia Rosa (2)
Simone Rose (2)
Izzy Stassi (2)
Ashlee Sullivan (2)
Tiana Sumanasekera (2)
Maliha Tressel (1)
Audree Valdenarro (1)
Sabrina Visconti (1)
Camie Westerman (1)
Halle Shea Wittenberg (1)
Leanne Wong (2)
Alicia Zhou (2)

Artistic Gymnastics - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 2

Jordan Chiles called the last three months “very, very difficult” in an interview about her Olympic bronze medal appeal.





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Texas Tech hoping big money and top transfers lead to unprecedented payback in football | Sports

FRISCO, Texas – Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire had already completed his portion of Big 12 football media days when Colorado’s Deion Sanders was asked if he has been paying attention to what the Red Raiders did in the transfer portal. The gist of that question was really about all the money for Texas Tech […]

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FRISCO, Texas – Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire had already completed his portion of Big 12 football media days when Colorado’s Deion Sanders was asked if he has been paying attention to what the Red Raiders did in the transfer portal.

The gist of that question was really about all the money for Texas Tech athletes, which is widely reported to be around $55 million for the upcoming school year. A significant chunk of that is expected to go toward the transformation of a football program that has never won a Big 12 title or even had a 10-win season since 2008, six years before three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes played his first game for the Red Raiders.


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Penn State Hockey’s Stacked Roster Demands Dominance Over Football

They often say in life, you have to recognize an opportunity when it becomes apparent and do everything to seize it to find ultimate success.  Penn State saw that with the ruling by the NCAA that allowed immediate eligibility for Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players, coupled with scholarship increases to 26 players, along with the […]

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They often say in life, you have to recognize an opportunity when it becomes apparent and do everything to seize it to find ultimate success. 

Penn State saw that with the ruling by the NCAA that allowed immediate eligibility for Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players, coupled with scholarship increases to 26 players, along with the ability to provide NIL opportunities, it saw an opportunity to make hockey another cornerstone program.

When Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) native Gavin McKenna was open to the idea of playing in the United States and leaving the CHL, Penn State was ready to roll the red carpet out for the prodigy.

Penn State was already stacked with defensemen Jackson Smith, who was a five-star prospect and was selected 14th overall by the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, and Mac Gadowsky, who was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award last season. Add in goaltender Kevin Reidler and forwards Shea Van Olm, who led all WHL skaters with 49 goals last season, along with Calgary Flames prospect Luke Misa, coupled with the returns of forwards Aiden Fink, who was also a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, Charlie Cerrato, Matt DiMarsico, and JJ Wiebusch the chances of Penn State returning to the Frozen Four were excellent.

When you add in the hockey prodigy that is McKenna, things now have a chance to be historic. 

Penn State Hockey

Photo by Penn State Athletics

Typically, hockey prodigies reserved their talents up in the CHL in one of the three leagues: Ontario, Quebec, or Western, then went to the NHL because the NCAA there were no good avenues and its just how it was.

When megadonor Terry Pegula gifted Penn State nearly $102 million to jumpstart the ice hockey programs, it wasn’t meant for the programs to languish in mediocrity. The gifts took the programs from club level groups all the way to being able to compete amongst the nation’s best programs.

I don’t know how much influence Pegula had with the deal to lure McKenna from the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat, but the opportunity to bring the odds on favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is enticing, and something Pegula would want to be part of for his alma mater that he has given so much to. 

When you think of the greatest players in NCAA history, you think of right off the bat Maine’s Jim Montgomery and Paul Kariya, Cornell netminder Ken Dryden, UMass defenseman Cale Makar, The Fusco Brothers from Harvard (Mark and Scott), or even Minnesota’s Neal Broten. 

Even with what each of those players accomplished, McKenna, Van Olm, and Smith have ample opportunity to set the bar higher. 

That is what the opportunity is in collegiate hockey with NIL and immediate eligibility, it is more lucrative opportunities for the best in hockey to play in the United States. 

The fact Penn State was able to poach so much high end WHL talent shows the direction it is going, but here in lies the opportunity to become the ultimate hockey superpower, where one typically doesn’t exist. 

In ice hockey, supremacy shifts from Denver, or one of the many Michigan, Minnesota, or Boston/Massachusetts schools, Penn State has the opportunity to be the ultimate hockey location. 

Gavin McKenna in 2024 By Kaiser matias - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155382093

Gavin McKenna in 2024 By Kaiser matias – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155382093

Winning a national championship and in style will only make Penn State much more aggressive for the high end talent. McKenna’s ceiling by many is Connor Bedard, John Tavares, or even Sidney Crosby. If McKenna delivers on that potential, that is the main attraction for all other hockey prodigies. 

In style, when you consider that the 1969-70 Cornell team is the only NCAA hockey team to go undefeated and 1992-93 Maine that went 42-1-2 fueled by Kariya and Montgomery is the top of the mountain for Penn State to achieve. The talent is there to do it in a dominant style that it is a legacy team for head coach Guy Gadowsky. The amount of talent he was able to secure puts him in an opportunity to have teams in the same vein as “Badger” Bob Johnson, Murray Armstrong, Red Berenson, or Jerry York. 

The key is, where the pressure is, this team will only be together once. This isn’t a team that the “band will get back together,” the NHL will be calling for all this high end talent in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Unlike football where there is a margin of error to breakthrough for them, hockey has stacked the deck so much, error is not an option. The opportunity is here for Penn State Men’s Hockey to achieve ultimate rink supremacy, not just for now but also for subsequent seasons. Penn State has the opportunity to perfect the “one and done” model for its program, something John Calipari did for a bit at Kentucky with Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. 

Fans will understand if football fails, James Franklin’s inability to win a big game is well documented, but the gap Penn State football has with its peers is not as wide as Penn State’s men’s hockey. You could even argue, hockey is only rivaled by wrestling by the talent disparity between them and the rest of the field. When you have such an advantage the pressure is great no matter how much football dominates the landscape.



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Brian Kelly responds to joke from reporter about his golf handicap: ‘I’ve had other things to do’

As LSU coach Brian Kelly spoke with reporters at SEC Media Days, a reporter joked with him about his golf handicap. It was a bit of banter during a breakout session during Monday’s opening day of the SEC Kickoff. Kelly responded by joking about how busy he’s been through June and into July. He said […]

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As LSU coach Brian Kelly spoke with reporters at SEC Media Days, a reporter joked with him about his golf handicap. It was a bit of banter during a breakout session during Monday’s opening day of the SEC Kickoff.

Kelly responded by joking about how busy he’s been through June and into July. He said he “had other things to do” as the recruiting trail heated up.

June was a big recruiting month as official visit season ramped up. LSU was busy on the trail, as well, as the program builds out a class headlined by two five-star recruits. That means Kelly didn’t necessarily have time to work on his game.

“You know what? I’ve had other things to do in the month of June. … It goes quickly,” Kelly joked during the breakout.

SEC coaches’ golf games have been a topic of discussion as of late amid Auburn’s struggles on the recruiting trail. Hugh Freeze drew criticism for hitting the links, but he pushed back on that last week during an interview with David Pollack.

LSU has 16 players as part of its 2026 recruiting class, led by Five Star Plus+ athlete Lamar Brown, who committed last week. He is the No. 2 overall player from the cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking.

LSU is getting read for Year 4 under Brian Kelly and looking to rebound from an up-and-down 2024 season. The Tigers finished 9-4 overall and 5-3 in SEC play, but will have their starting quarterback in the fold once again. Garrett Nussmeier is back for one more year after opting not to declare for the NFL Draft, looking to take a leap in Year 2 as the starter.

Nussmeier threw for 4,052 yards and 29 touchdowns, to 10 interceptions. LSU has a strong history of second-year starters after Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels’ success, and the potential Top-10 pick will look to follow a similar path.

However, Brian Kelly pointed out the expectation isn’t to be either of those players. The goal, quite simply, is to win a championship.

“I would say that when you’re comparing him to Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow, that’s a high bar for anybody, right?” Kelly said. But Garrett is at LSU because he loves LSU. He wants to lead our football team to a championship. If the Heisman follows with that, I think he’s good with that.

“I answer the question this way because all of our conversations with him aren’t about individual goals. They’re about how do I lead this football team to a championship. All we’ve seen is him leading, him being selfless. His selflessness is going to be the differentiator from last year to this year, as well as the experience he had playing against really good SEC teams.”



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Dartmouth Rowing Sending Five Student-Athletes, One Coach to World Under-23 Championships

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth rowing will have six total representatives at the World Under-23 Championships in Poland later this month. Men’s lightweight rowing is sending two athletes and a coach, men’s heavyweight rowing is sending two athletes, with one athlete from women’s rowing competing.   The Under-23 Championships are set for July 23-27 in Poznan, […]

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HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth rowing will have six total representatives at the World Under-23 Championships in Poland later this month. Men’s lightweight rowing is sending two athletes and a coach, men’s heavyweight rowing is sending two athletes, with one athlete from women’s rowing competing.
 
The Under-23 Championships are set for July 23-27 in Poznan, Poland. To learn more, please click here.
 
On the men’s lightweight side, Cosmo Hondrogen will compete for the United States as the lightweight single sculler, with Valentin Wang-Norderud rowing for Norway in the lightweight double. Head coach Trevor Michelson will also be heading to Poland as a coach of Hondrogen, and the heavyweight quad.

Hondrogen and Wang-Norderud were both key members of Dartmouth’s varsity eight that finished second in the varsity eight and in total team points at the IRA National Championship, marking the program’s top team points standing in program history. It was also Dartmouth’s first medal at nationals since 2012. The varsity eight finished with a time of 5:32.250 in the grand final, less than three seconds behind first-place Harvard and ahead of MIT, Penn, Princeton and Navy. Hondrogen sat in the six seat, with Wang-Norderud in bow.

 

For multiple years, Michelson has coached with the U.S. Under-23 team through selection camp and competition. Last year, he led the men’s four to a gold medal at the world championships.

 

Meanwhile, James Frederikson of men’s heavyweight rowing will compete for Australia in the eight, with Aron Kalmar a member of the coxless four for Hungary.

 

Frederikson was a member of the second varsity eight this past season that finished third at Eastern Sprints to earn a bronze medal. Kalmar rowed in the varsity eight, which came in second to earn silver at sprints, along with a third-place finish at the IRA National Championship — marking the Big Green varsity eight’s best finish since 1994. The varsity eight had an undefeated dual season as well.

 

On the women’s side, Áine Ley is a member of the United States Under-23 team and the eight for a second straight summer. Last year, she helped the Red, White and Blue place second in the World Championships. This past school year, Ley was a key member of the varsity eight, which finished in fourth place at the Ivy League Championship — the varsity’s best finish at Ivies since 2014. Ley was a first team All-Ivy honoree as a junior. The Big Green advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2011.

 



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