Spring 2025 Season Recap: Heading In An Upward Trajectory

The University of Delaware Men’s Crew followed an upward trajectory throughout the spring 2025 season, beginning with land training in January. The squad capped the month with its inaugural winter training trip to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. After a couple months in the erg room and weight room, the team kicked off the spring campaign on March 22nd when they traveled to Princeton, New Jersey in a dual race against the Georgetown Lightweight squad. It was the first glimpse of spring racing for the team and it was surely a notable one, with UDMC fielding 3 varsity eights.

San Diego Crew Classic

This season also was one of firsts, with UDMC sending an eight to the San Diego Crew Classic for the first time in team history. This eight comprised coxswain, Kaitlyn Sill, and rowers (from stern to bow): John Dempsey, Will Ryan, Brett Weber, Leo Williams, Gabe Collins, Addison Garrett, Josh Lamppa, and Kevin Corr. The first event in San Diego was the ACRA Invitational which included UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, San Diego State University, and Loyola Marymount University. UDMC raced hard against UCLA and ultimately placed 2nd in the event, 3.5 seconds behind UCLA. The next day of racing was for the Cal Cup and UDMC lined up against UC Davis, UC San Diego, and Arizona State in the heat. In the end, UDMC earned a spot in the petite final with UC San Diego winning the heat and UC Davis placing 2nd by 0.7 seconds. Looking to close out the weekend of racing on a high note, UDMC dominated the field in the B final winning by a margin of 10 seconds.

GW Invite

The team then took the first couple weeks of April to continue to build fitness and speed before heading down to the nation’s capital to compete in the GW Invite in blistering tailwind conditions. UDMC showcased its depth, sending 3 varsity eights and 1 freshman eight to race. The GW Invite also offered one of the first chances this season to measure up against top ACRA competition, including Virginia, GW, Bucknell, Rutgers, Minnesota, and Washington State. The 3V secured a strong win, taking shirts from Minnesota and Rutgers, while the 2V did the same, capturing a victory over Washington State.

Kerr Cup

It was a quick week of training before the crew made its way up to the Schuylkill to race in the Kerr Cup. Winds were whipping, with headwinds exceeding 15 mph and gusts up to 30 mph. The freshmen eight showed grit in their heat, defeating Temple to qualify for the grand final, in which they ultimately placed 6th overall. The 3V raced hard but fell short of qualifying for their grand final. The 2V encountered a steering malfunction past the breakage point which kept them out of the grand final. But with a quick repair, the 2V won their final, walking through Rutgers & GW. The 1V raced hard in their heat finishing just outside a qualifying spot in the grand final, earning a spot in the petite final. The 1V in the end placed 5th in the petite final across a deep field including Division 1 scholarship programs.

Dad Vail

Battle tough after the Kerr Cup, the team trained hard the next couple of weeks on the Christina finding even more speed and fitness. After a few days of competitive seat racing, the boats were set to race at the Dad Vail Regatta on the Cooper River in New Jersey. The weather on the first day was not the kindest, bringing rain and wind. But the Blue Hens persisted. The freshmen eight, 3V, and the varsity quad advanced straight to the grand final from their time trial. The 1V and 2V had a harder path to their grand finals, needing to place well in the time trial and then placing top 3 in the semis. In the 2V’s semi-final, the Blue Hen crew went up against Temple, St.Joe’s, Mercyhurst, and Fairfield. Temple and St.Joe’s got off the blocks quickly, establishing themselves as the top 2 in the race. This left the third spot to be a dogfight between UDMC and Mercyhurst. UDMC was up half a length on Mercyhurst at the 750-meter mark but then Mercyhurst walked it back, gaining a length up on UDMC from the 1000-meter mark to the 1500-meter mark. With 500 meters left, the 2V’s spot in the grand final was slipping away but it was not gone. The Blue Hen crew started to sprint, and stroke by stroke took seats on Mercyhurst, eventually being bow to bow with them in the last 250 meters. That was not enough for UDMC, and with less than 250 meters to go, they charged even harder. The late surge pushed the 2V on to the grand final, beating out Mercyhurst by just over 1 second. This was the first time since 2018 that the UDMC 2V had made an appearance in the Dad Vail grand final. To round out the first day of racing, the 1V had its crosshairs set on a grand final appearance. Their semi-final consisted of Temple, St.Joe’s, Stetson, Marist, and Colgate. The 1V raced hard placing 5th in the semi-final, 5 seconds off of 3rd place Stetson. The second day of racing kicked off with the 2V competing in the grand final, finishing 6th in a competitive field of Temple, Drexel, La Salle, St.Joe’s, and Marist. The 3V was up next and they placed 5th in their grand final behind Drexel, La Salle, Temple, and St.Joe’s but ahead of Jacksonville. The varsity quad was next, and they placed 4th, just out of the medals. The freshmen eight was the next to go down the course for their grand final, in which they placed 4th, ahead of Penn State and Merchant Marine. The day of racing concluded for UDMC, with the 1V competing in the petite final. The 1V initially was a bit off their rhythm settling in on the stern deck of the pack. But not to be counted out, Delaware rallied a late move to pull up on most of the field. The Blue Hen 1V finished 4th out of six, ahead of Jacksonville and Colgate.

ACRA

With Dad Vail in the rearview mirror, UDMC turned its focus towards ACRA, the National Championship Regatta. It was a short turnaround for the team before they made the 600-mile trek down to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to race on Melton Hill Lake. Friday was the first day of racing, with all the eights competing in heats and the double competing in a time trial. The freshmen eight earned a spot in the CD semi-finals. The 3V placed 3rd in their heat securing a spot in the grand final. The 2V got off to a great start in their heat, solidly in second place at the 1k behind Purdue, with open water on Notre Dame. But things took a turn for the worse when “a log attacked the boat” removing UD’s Empacher skeg and damaging the rudder. This led to the 2V navigating the course by hand—literally—thanks to coxswain Nick Kristensen. While some members of the 2V crossed the line vanquished at the missed opportunity, all was not lost. Coaches, John Williams and Tristan Snow upon learning of the problem with logs on the course notified the officials and petitioned to be allowed to row in the AB final. The ACRA officials and regatta directors granted a reprieve allowing the 2V to race in the AB semi-final on Saturday, in the outside lane 7. The ACRA organizers even suspended all further racing until volunteers cleared the water of extensive debris. Once the clearing was finished the 1V went out to race their heat. Their heat consisted of Notre Dame, UCLA, UC Davis, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, and Virginia Tech. The 1V Blue Hen crew placed 3rd, only 2 seconds behind UCLA in 2nd, and ahead of UC Davis.

Saturday was nothing short of exciting. The freshmen eight competed in the CD semi-final, winning it by 0.7 seconds which secured them a spot in the C final for Sunday. The 2V then competed in a hotly contested AB semi-final between Virginia, Bucknell, Notre Dame, Minnesota, Orange Coast, and UC Davis. They got off to a fast start, going stroke for stroke with Virginia in the first 500 meters and being up on the rest of the field. As the race continued, Virginia took the lead with Bucknell closely trailing and then the 2V being just a length down on Bucknell but the Fightin’ Blue Hens were too much for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with UD squeaking into the grand final with Notre Dame earning a spot in the petite final. The 2V was bow ball to bow ball with Notre Dame in the last 300 meters but a strong sprint led UDMC to a second straight 2V grand final, beating Notre Dame by less than 0.7 seconds to secure the qualifying position.

The 1V was up next in their AB semi-final against Purdue, Notre Dame, Orange Coast, Washington State, and George Washington. While Purdue and Notre Dame got off to solid starts to secure themselves as the top 2 boats in the semi-final, Orange Coast ended up fighting their way to the last spot in the grand final. The 1V placed 5th, 3 seconds out of a grand final spot. The double then raced in the E final, placing 2nd.

The final race on Saturday was the 3V grand final, with UDMC lining up against Bucknell, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, and Notre Dame. A nice tailwind provided quick conditions, with the 3V placing 5th posting a time of 6:07.541, behind Bucknell, Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia but ahead of Notre Dame.

Sunday finally arrived and so did tremendous racing. The freshmen eight won the C final by over 3 seconds, placing 13th overall in the country. The 2V then competed in the grand final but fell short of medal contention, finishing 5th in the country. The final race was the 1V petite final. The 1V got out to a nice start and maintained it for the entirety of the race, fighting off moves from Bucknell and GW. UD ended up winning the petite final, placing 7th overall in the country ahead of Bucknell, GW, and Michigan. This 1V8’s performance at ACRA earned coverage in College Rowing Essentials Weekly, “Delaware won the B Final, downing five teams either ranked or receiving votes in the poll, including #7 Bucknell, #9 GW, #10 Washington State, Grand Valley, and #8 Michigan.”

Looking Ahead

Looking back on the spring season, UDMC took a pivotal step towards achieving a higher standard for the year to come. Freshman, Liam Blaney, shared his thoughts on the season “I think the spring season was a huge step in the right direction for the program as a whole, and am excited to ride this wave of success and growth into the fall. I am confident that the group we have with us is extremely motivated and wants to win more than anyone else.” With optimism brewing in the boathouse and a dedication to summer training, UDMC will be more than ready once pre-season rolls around in late August to pick up where they left off. While the team bids farewell to graduates Will Ryan, Leo Williams, Jake Milburn, Nate Todaro, Cayden Smalls, and Kaitlyn Sill, it retains a strong core of rising seniors and welcomes a talented class of ten recruited high schooler oarsmen who will propel the program to new heights.