PENNSAUKEN, N.J. – The Fairfield University women's rowing team claimed the 2025 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship this afternoon, the program's first title since the 2000 season.
The team standings placed Fairfield and Jacksonville in a tie for the highest point total with 47 each but the Stags' first-place finish in the varsity 8 broke the tie. Marist University finished third with 41 points followed by Stetson University (38 points), Sacred Heart University (36 points), Canisius University (25 points), Robert Morris University (15 points), Iona University (11 points), and Drake University (11 points).
Fairfield University Head Women's Rowing Coach
Dr. David Patterson earned the MAAC Coach of the Year which was announced following today's Championship.
"This is incredibly exciting especially with a lot of teams in contention," Coach Patterson said. "Year in and year out we just work as hard as we can and put on the best performance. We have been close by coming in second a few times and in third a few times. We just needed something special to happen to get us to the top of the table and that happened today with the way the results panned out."
The Stags' varsity 8 highlighted the afternoon took the top spot in its competition by completing the course with a time of 6:42.86 in the grand final. The crew won its heat earlier in the day by clocking in at 6:39.41 to advance to the final. Fairfield was represented by
Arianna Welton,
Shawn O'Brien,
Kelly Cullen,
Zuzanna Janusz,
Victoria Conrad, Molly Squire,
Catherine Morrissey,
Sarah Wendling, and coxswain
Alexandra Tomlinson.
The second varsity 8 also collected a medal on the afternoon, taking third place in its grand final after taking the distance in 7:00.99, behind Jacksonville (6:52.90) and Marist (6:56.32). In its heat, the crew posted a time of 7:15.44 to move onto the final. The Stags boat included
Megan Rourke,
Cailey Chechitelli, Sasha Antencio,
Mia Van Mater,
Emma Szachta, Julie Pedrazzi,
Miranda Schmidt,
Grace McDonough, and coxswain
Marianna Kalin.
The varsity 4 opened its morning by finishing second in its heat by crossing the line in 8:16.24 and qualified the grand final where it took fourth place after putting up a time of 8:20.40. The Stags' varsity 4 was comprised by Gia Enderle,
Caitlyn Gregitis,
Audrey DiMarino,
Catherine Martin, and
Grace Tyszka.
The second varsity 4 picked up a third-place finish in its final after coming to the finish in 8:28.26. The crew consisted of
Zoey Ames,
Jill Newman,
Nora O'Connell,
Ava Bistoff, and coxswain
Alisa Tsavaris.
The 2025 All-MAAC Rowing Teams were announced following the championship with Fairfield placing five on the first team. Tomlinson, Squire, Welton, Conrad, and Morrissey represented the Stags on the All-MAAC first team.
"I am so proud of the entire team," Patterson said. "We knew this was squaring up to be a championship in which winners, medalists, and points were going to be awarded across a number of programs. We believed we could get there if all the pieces fell into place and that is exactly what happened. The theme of the year has been forged, resilient, built for life and we bought into that from the start. I can way without hesitation this team is built for life creating a memory that will live for life - the first Fairfield women's rowing squad to compete at the NCAA Championship.
By capturing the MAAC title, the Fairfield University women's rowing team earned the conference's automatic berth to the 2025 NCAA Division I Championship held on May 30-June 1. The Championship takes place on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. The field is made up of 22 teams, nine earning automatic bids through conference championships and 13 receiving at-large bids.
