Vanderbilt’s club rowing team competed at the American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championships on May 17-19 at Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Vanderbilt Women’s Varsity 8+ boat took gold with a time of 6:56.216, edging out Purdue University by 0.28 of a second. 

The 8+ boat has eight rowers in the boat and one coxswain, who gives the boat instructions. At the 2023 Head of the Charles Regatta, Vanderbilt took silver in the Women’s Varsity 8+ race. Prior to that, Vanderbilt’s best finish was ninth place in 2016. Head coach Jon Miller was very proud of his team for this accomplishment. 

“When the women’s eight crossed the finish line, I was just so proud of them and of the entire program. To be honest, I wasn’t prepared for how great this would feel,” Miller said.  “It blew away my expectations. The whole boat was just so pumped to have accomplished this victory, especially after taking silver last year. I was so proud of the alums, the athletes and the coaching staff.”

Per senior Dillen Cameron, the team practiced six days a week at 5:45 a.m. They were given two lifting routines to complete on their own time, and most completed at least two extra workouts outside of organized practice. Cameron and Miller both cited disciplined time management as one of the main keys to their success. 

“It’s difficult to find the right balance when you are training to the level that we are and attempting to accomplish things that we never had before. That being said, [the team] truly showed their versatility and their ability to succeed this year,” Miller said. “We had the most amount of extra training that I have witnessed in my 15 years here on campus — athlete-led, outside of practice.” 

According to Cameron and senior Yennie Jun, the team had nerves going into the women’s 8+ races. They had raced over three days in heats, semifinals and the grand final round. Throughout the weekend, the team said they kept their pre-race routine consistent. 

“We knew we could win, but we would need to put ourselves in position to do so. We needed perfect execution,” Jun said. “In terms of pre-race rituals, the team always eats Panera bagels for breakfast. It’s prime race fuel. The women’s 8+ also blasts hype music on the way to the race course. It keeps our minds off the nerves and lets us have fun and get excited for the upcoming challenge. ‘Like That’ by Future was our go-to song this year.”

Throughout the grand final, the women’s team said they committed to the race plan. Per Cameron, they had a strong start, but Purdue began closing the gap in the last 500 meters of the race. Cameron, as the coxswain, said she had to make a split-second decision and opt to start their final sprint earlier than normal. 

“We were only about a seat ahead of [Purdue] in the last 100 meters or so of the race, so I was aggressively telling my crew we had to empty the tank and give it everything we had,” Cameron said. “At one point, I simply called, ‘Please, you have to go.’ It was a call I had never used in practice, but I needed to convey the emotion and intensity we needed to win the race.” 

Vanderbilt rowing had four athletes make the ACRA All-Academic first team and fourteen athletes make the ACRA All-Academic second team by upholding a 3.85 or 3.5 cumulative GPA, respectively. In addition, seven athletes made the ACRA All-South Region Team, of which there are only 18 spots in total. 

Men’s rowing also brought home its first national championship medals in program history — the Varsity Men’s Quad and Novice Men’s 4+ boats both took silver. Vanderbilt Rowing, as a whole, took ninth in overall team points. This was the first time Vanderbilt joined the top 10. Miller hopes the men’s boats will remain in medal contention next year and also bring home a championship. 

“While we lost several great teammates, leaders and athletes in the senior class this spring, we have a lot of critical components coming back in the fall,” Miller said. “We also have a couple of talented, experienced freshmen coming to campus in August and will look to add another strong freshman class of walk-ons. We are looking forward to enjoying our summers and showing up in the fall ready to build on our success in the 2024 season.”