Connect with us
https://yoursportsnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/call-to-1.png

Sports

Late switch to rowing sends Henrik Neuspiel to Dartmouth College – OttawaSportsPages.ca

By Martin Cleary Henrik Neuspiel is a natural athlete. Pick a sport and he has likely given it a try and had success in his journey. Sport was a natural avenue to follow as his father Victor competed in three world championships in kayaking and his mother Margaret Nelson Neuspiel played for Canada’s women’s water […]

Published

on


This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is HSB25FTv2-1024x576.jpg

By Martin Cleary

Henrik Neuspiel is a natural athlete.

Pick a sport and he has likely given it a try and had success in his journey.

Sport was a natural avenue to follow as his father Victor competed in three world championships in kayaking and his mother Margaret Nelson Neuspiel played for Canada’s women’s water polo squad.

For the past dozen years, he has been recognized as a hockey player in the winter and a flatwater sprint kayaker in the summer. But he’s more than just a two-sport athlete.

During his three years of studying in the High Performance Athlete program at John McCrae Secondary School, he participated in varsity rugby and track and field. In his first two years of high school, he was the top novice (while attending Merivale High School) and junior shot put thrower at the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association and Eastern Ontario levels. He competed at the 2023 OFSAA championships in boys’ junior shot put.

His performances in track and rugby earned him the school’s top athlete award in each sport in 2023.

As a Grade 9 student-athlete at Merivale, he was selected the junior athlete of the year for his overall efforts.


~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~




~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~

Neuspiel also has been known to play on his high school basketball and volleyball teams and compete in cross-country running races in the fall and cross-country skiing events in the winter.

As for hockey, he climbed as high as a U16 AA-level defenceman and played Canada’s national winter sport for 12 years.

His summers were spent at the Rideau Canoe Club, starting in week-long, learn-to-paddle canoe programs before graduating to provincial, national and international championships, where he has won 54 medals, including 30 gold.

But during his last several hockey and kayaking seasons, the 6’5″ 18-year-old was trying to work a new sport into his repertoire – rowing.

For the past four years, he has attended the RBC Training Ground tryout sessions at the University of Ottawa. It’s an opportunity for young athletes to be tested in front of technical recruiters from a variety of Canadian sport governing bodies.

More than 2,000 athletes take part in this athletic showcase and the top 30 are declared RBC Olympians and awarded financial assistance packages with the goal of making a specific national team. While Neuspiel didn’t qualify for the top 30 each year, he attracted some interest from rowing.

Henrik Neuspiel at RBC Training Ground. Photo: @henrik_neuspiel Instagram

“I hadn’t grown out of kayaking. I love it. But rowing was a really good opportunity for me,” explained Neuspiel about switching sports late in his youth.

While rowing was now on his sports agenda, he didn’t act on it immediately. He wanted to savour the end of his junior kayaking career with some international flavour.

Neuspiel started to tinker with rowing last year by doing some ERG testing, where he was timed over 2,000 metres on a stationary rowing machine. His scores were eye popping and attention grabbing. His sports career is now devoted to rowing.

He has committed to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire for the 2025-26 academic year and will race for The Big Green as a freshman.

Rowing Canada also has seen his potential as well as three other Ottawa Rowing Club teammates, who have been named to represent Canada at the Intercontinental Rowing Challenge on July 15-16 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Neuspiel will be joined by Max Froeschl, Jack Coulson and Samaya Khosla.

“I have been in contact with Zak Lewis (Ottawa Rowing Club head coach) for quite a while, after he reached out to me three to four years ago,” Neuspiel said. “He accommodated me. I didn’t want to jump in it right away.”

Neuspiel signed off on his youth kayaking career in 2024 by competing for Canada at the World Junior Sprint Canoe Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the Canoe Sprint Olympic Hopes Regatta in Szeged, Hungary.

At the Olympic Hopes, he won a silver medal in the K2 500-metre final. At the world juniors, he helped Canada to a sixth-place showing in the boys’ K4 500-metre final, which was the country’s best result in that discipline in 10 years.

Henrik Neuspiel competed for Canoe-Kayak Canada in 2024. Photo: henrikneuspiel.com

While Neuspiel hasn’t started serious racing as a rower, he has taken part in regular ERG ranking sessions. He is considered the top male junior on the Canadian ERG rankings and has a personal-best time of six minutes and seven seconds for 2,000 metres.

At six feet, five inches, Neuspiel has an ideal frame for rowing, is fit from his years of kayaking with a double-bladed paddle and has a powerful engine to cut through the water now with one or two oars.

Rowing also allowed him the valuable tool to chase a university education at an Ivy League school. Ivy League schools offer grant-in-aid rather than full or partial scholarships to its student-athletes and rowing is one of those eligible varsity sports. Kayaking or canoeing isn’t a varsity sport in Canada or the United States.

“I saw more opportunities in rowing. Once I tested (on the ERG), I liked it,” explained Neuspiel, an honours high school student with a high 80s average. “It was a no-brainer not to get into it.”

Neuspiel made the maximum five visits to American universities to study the academics, the campuses and the rowing programs at Princeton, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and Stanford.

“I was fortunate I could go fast on the ERG,” he added. “It gave me a lot of leverage. I had quite a good number of schools (recruit me). I was fortunate to have a choice.”

(From left) Max Froeschl, Jack Coulson, Samaya Khosla and Henrik Neuspiel of the Ottawa Rowing Club will be racing for the Canadian junior national team on July 15-16 in Michigan. Photo provided

He plans to study either chemical engineering or finance at Dartmouth, whose head coach is Wyatt Allen, an Olympic gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Summer Games and a bronze-medal winner at the 2008 Athens Games in the men’s eights.

“It will definitely be an uphill battle,” Neuspiel said about his freshman rowing season. “The program has 40 to 50 guys. I don’t expect to push the top boats immediately. I want to work hard under their guidance.

“In my first year, I will not be the fastest. In the second, third and fourth years, I want to enjoy the whole process and come out with success through hard work and improvement.”

Neuspiel is in the early days of developing into a rower. He was successful going forward as a kayaker. Now, he wants to do the same, but going backwards.

“Personally, I need to be more comfortable. I’ll start slow. Then, I’ll move up and up to a comfortable racing speed,” he outlined.

“Rowing was always what I wanted to end up doing. It was a little delayed.”

Read More of our 2025 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2025

Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for 51 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.

When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.

Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.


HELP SHINE A LIGHT ON LOCAL SPORT! You can offer valuable support for our not-for-profit organization to provide a voice for local sport with a tax-deductible charitable donation to the Ottawa Sports Pages Fund via OCF-FCO.ca/Ottawa-Sports-Pages-Fund today.





Link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sports

Men’s Cross Country Announces 2025 Schedule

Story Links SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men’s cross country announced its 2025 competition schedule.   The season begins August 29 at the USF Invitational in San Francisco. The Broncos then head to the Kym Duyst Invitational September 13 followed by Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational and the Pacific Invitational October […]

Published

on


SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men’s cross country announced its 2025 competition schedule.
 
The season begins August 29 at the USF Invitational in San Francisco. The Broncos then head to the Kym Duyst Invitational September 13 followed by Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational and the Pacific Invitational October 3.
 
Santa Clara hosts the annual Bronco invitational at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on October 18. More info can be found here.
 
Pre Nationals on October 18 close out the regular season before the WCC Championships November 1. NCAA West Regionals are November 14 in Sacramento, and the NCAA Championships are November 22 in Columbia, Mo.



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

NBCUniversal Considering Cable Channel Featuring Peacock Sports, NBA Content

Shutterstock image Erik Gruenwedel July 23, 2025 Cable TV might not be dead yet. NBCUniversal is reportedly considering launching a cable-themed channel that would include Peacock sports content, in addition to the NBA. The channel would launch in the fall to coincide with NBC Sports and Peacock assuming distribution rights to the NBA as part […]

Published

on


NBCUniversal Considering Cable Channel Featuring Peacock Sports, NBA Content

Shutterstock image

Erik Gruenwedel

Cable TV might not be dead yet. NBCUniversal is reportedly considering launching a cable-themed channel that would include Peacock sports content, in addition to the NBA.

The channel would launch in the fall to coincide with NBC Sports and Peacock assuming distribution rights to the NBA as part of the league’s 11-year, $75 billion license rights agreement with Disney (ABC Sports and ESPN), NBC, Peacock and Prime Video, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the move, citing sources familiar with the situation.

NBCUniversal has made no official comment on the situation.

The sports channel would be bundled with select third-party premium TV offerings rather than conventional pay-TV bundles.

The move comes as NBCUniversal is spinning off its cable assets into a separate standalone company called Versant, which includes CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, Golf Channel and digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine.

At the same time, live sports remains a pay-TV staple, while Fox and Disney in the fall plan to launch standalone streaming services — Fox One and ESPN — targeting TV sports viewers.

Peacock, which ended March with 41 million paid subscribers, currently streams NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” and an exclusive NFL game, in addition to PGA Tour golf, college football, the WNBA, Olympics and Premier League Soccer.

Comcast ended the quarter with more than 12 million Xfinity premium TV subscribers.

Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Volleyball Earns AVCA Team Academic Award

Story Links Center Valley, PA (July 23, 2025) – The DeSales University volleyball team was honored with the AVCA Team Academic Award as announced by the organization this week. Teams were awarded the academic award by maintaining a year-long GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale as 1,450 collegiate and […]

Published

on


Center Valley, PA (July 23, 2025) – The DeSales University volleyball team was honored with the AVCA Team Academic Award as announced by the organization this week.

Teams were awarded the academic award by maintaining a year-long GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale as 1,450 collegiate and high school volleyball programs earned the award.

“It is very exciting to see that the record-setting, on-court successes during the 2024-25 season have extended to the classroom,” says AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon. “The fact that more programs earned the Team Academic Award than ever before is evidence of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their goals as both students and athletes.”

Head coach Michele Zabinski just finished her 20th season in charge of the volleyball program leading the Bulldogs to a 14-17 overall record and a spot in the MAC Freedom postseason tournament last season. Thirteen Bulldogs earned MAC Fall Academic Honor Roll honors and first-year Allison Reimer was named to the MAC Volleyball Academic All-MAC Team.

 



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Women’s Golf Adds Three For 2025-26

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Women’s Golf Head Coach Alyssa Waite has announced the addition of two Division I transfers and a freshman who will join three returning players and three high school signees to make up the team’s roster for 2025-26.   Alyson Sor | Long Beach, Calif. | Wilson HS | UC Irvine   […]

Published

on


LONG BEACH, Calif. – Women’s Golf Head Coach Alyssa Waite has announced the addition of two Division I transfers and a freshman who will join three returning players and three high school signees to make up the team’s roster for 2025-26.
 
Alyson Sor | Long Beach, Calif. | Wilson HS | UC Irvine
 
Alyson Sor will transfer to Long Beach State after a pair of successful seasons with Black and Blue rivals UC Irvine. Last season, Sor had a 74.29 scoring average and recorded four Top 20 finishes, including a fifth-place finish at the Soboba Classic at Soboba Springs Golf Club last spring, helping UC Irvine win the team championship. She has a career Division I low of 68 and had a Top 10 finish at the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational as a true freshman. “Aly is our Long Beach local,” said Waite. “We wanted to bring the Wilson High School star back home. She is a long hitter who has big aspirations with golf, and we are excited to help get her to the next level with her game.”
 
Emma Kang | Torrance, Calif. | South Torrance HS | Idaho
 
Emma Kang comes to Long Beach State by way of Idaho, where she spent the last two seasons as a regular part of the lineup. A two-time All-Big Sky selection, she was the Big Sky Player of the Week after winning the Tri-State Invite hosted by Eastern Washington, and she had the lowest scoring average last season for the Vandals at 74.4. “It was time for Emma to come back home,” said Waite. “Her Dad is a Long Beach State alum and she’s from Torrance, so we took the opportunity to welcome her into the team and back to Southern California. She brings great collegiate experience and has the eagerness to learn.”
 
Chloe Park | Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. | Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
 
Chloe Park has an extensive junior golf record and will join Long Beach State as a freshman in 2025. The 2021 Southern California Junior Tour Player of the Year, Park was a winner earlier this year at the Two-Day Spring Series at Morongo, carding a 75 and a 76, and shot a 71 at Bear Creek Golf Club in the TTC Cantlay Series. “We are excited to bring in Chloe as a freshman,” noted Waite. “She is a fierce competitor who knows how to compete.”
 
Former All-Big West golfers Madison Le and Erin Lee are joined by Isabelle Olivas-Lowell in returning to the program, while Olivia Chappell, Summer Schafer, and Kailey Yoon committed to the program in November.

 



Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Lobo VB Unveils Complete 2025 Schedule – University of New Mexico Lobos athletics

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With the unveiling of New Mexico Volleyball’s nonconference matchups and an update to the Mountain West Conference schedule due to the addition of Grand Canyon, the Lobos’ complete 2025 schedule is now available to the public. This year’s slate includes 14 home matches at the Johnson Center that kick off with this […]

Published

on


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With the unveiling of New Mexico Volleyball’s nonconference matchups and an update to the Mountain West Conference schedule due to the addition of Grand Canyon, the Lobos’ complete 2025 schedule is now available to the public.

This year’s slate includes 14 home matches at the Johnson Center that kick off with this year’s Lobo Invitational, a multi-team event that will feature matchups between and against Manhattan, Northern Arizona and Houston Christian (Aug. 29-30). Last season, the Lobos averaged over 800 fans a game for the third season in a row, with a season-high 1,387 fans in attendance vs. New Mexico State on Sept. 16.

The Lobos have won at a .585 clip over the past four seasons and are 33-18 at home in that span.

After renewing their rivalry for the first time since 2019 last season, the Lobos will again face New Mexico State twice – they’ll host the Aggies Sept. 16 at the Johnson Center before hitting the road for a match in Las Cruces the following day. UNM is 18-12 against the Aggies at home and 10-19 against them on the road.

Last year, the Lobos defeated NMSU in four sets in Albuquerque (25-19, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21) before sweeping them in three sets (25-19, 25-21, 25-13) two days later in Las Cruces.

The Lobos are looking to return to the Mountain West Tournament after missing out in 2024 to snap a streak of three consecutive tournament appearances. In 2024, UNM found its rhythm late in the season, winning four of their last six after weathering a seven-match skid. The Lobos led the conference in digs per set (15.77) and ranked second in blocks per set (2.53) in 2024, finishing ninth in the conference standings at 13-15 overall and 6-12 in MW play.

Fans will get their first chance to see this years’ Lobos in action when they host D-II New Mexico Highlands in exhibition action on Aug. 23 at the Johnson Center. Follow @UNMLoboVB on socials for promotions, updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

NONCONFERENCE
After the Lobo Invitational, UNM heads to Stephenville, Texas for tournament action hosted by Tarleton State – they’ll face the Texans on that Thursday (Sept. 4) before meetings with Northwestern State (Sept. 5) and Prairie View A&M (Sept. 6).

They’ll be in Riverside, Calif. the following weekend for one more weekend of round-robin matchups hosted by Cal Baptist, opening up with Portland State (Sept. 11) and Cal State Fullerton (Sept. 12) in neutral-site action before facing host Cal Baptist on Sept. 13.

MOUNTAIN WEST PLAY
Conference play will include an 18-match format with each MW team playing nine home contests and making nine road trips during league action. League play begins on Tuesday, Sept. 23, and concludes Saturday, Nov. 22.

The Lobos will begin conference play with four home matchups in a row, beginning with Utah State (Sep. 25) and Boise State (Sep. 27) in the Johnson Center for Week 1 before matchups with Colorado State (Oct. 2) and Wyoming (Oct. 4).

After a three-game road swing featuring dates at San Diego State (Oct. 9), new conference opponent Grand Canyon (Oct. 11) and UNLV (Oct. 16), UNM returns home for a rematch with the Lopes (Oct. 18) before another road swing to Fresno State (Oct. 23) and San Jose State (Oct. 25).

Another four-match home stretch takes place from Oct. 30-Nov. 8, with UNM hosting Nevada, Air Force, UNLV and San Diego State in that span –  the Lobos’ matchup with the Aztecs will be Senior Day at the Johnson Center.  After heading to Nevada (Nov. 13) and Air Force (Nov. 15), the Lobos close out the season with road dates at Wyoming and Colorado State on Nov. 20 and 22nd, respectively.

If the Lobos qualify for the conference tournament, they’ll be returning to Vegas the following week to begin postseason action. League play will determine the seeding for the 2024 MW Volleyball Championship, which will start Wednesday, Nov. 26, and conclude Saturday, Nov. 29, in Las Vegas at the Cox Pavilion on the UNLV Campus.





Link

Continue Reading

Sports

Women's Basketball Recognized on WBCA Academic Honor Roll

Story Links WBCA Release Atlanta, Ga. — The University of Lynchburg women’s basketball team was selected as a special mention on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Honor Roll for their accomplishments on the court and in the classroom, announced by the WBCA. The WBCA Academic Honor Roll recognizes college women’s basketball teams across the […]

Published

on

Women's Basketball Recognized on WBCA Academic Honor Roll

Atlanta, Ga. — The University of Lynchburg women’s basketball team was selected as a special mention on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Honor Roll for their accomplishments on the court and in the classroom, announced by the WBCA.

The WBCA Academic Honor Roll recognizes college women’s basketball teams across the nation in their respective divisions that carry the highest combined grade point average, inclusive of all student-athletes on the roster for the entire season. Teams having a 3.0 cumulative GPA or better and qualify for consideration of the top 25 in their division are honored as special mentions.

Lynchburg is one of four teams in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference to be selected to this year’s list. The other schools within the conference include Washington & Lee, Shenandoah, and Randolph-Macon.

To view the complete list released by the WBCA containing all 2024-25 Academic Team Honor Roll selections, click here.

Visit Lynchburg athletics’ home online, LynchburgSports.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news on all Hornets sports and coverage from the Lynchburg Hornets Sports Network.

Sign up here to receive Lynchburg Sports news in your email inbox.

Give Lynchburg Athletics a like on Facebook, and follow Lynchburg Athletics on Instagram and X.

–LYN–

Print Friendly Version
Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending