The Kansas rowing team earned a second-place finish at the Big 12 Championship on Sunday morning in Sarasota, Florida, with five players earning all-conference honors in the process.
Both were KU program records accomplished in the first year under head coach Andrew Derrick.
“I am just really proud of this squad and excited about the future,” Derrick said in a press release. “We have made a ton of progress this year and know there is more to come with more hard work, which the team is excited to tackle. It will be hard to say goodbye to the seniors, they are awesome, but we know they laid a great foundation to build on next year and beyond. I can’t wait to see what we can do next season if we show up ready to build on this year.”
Derrick arrived last June from Gonzaga, where he at one point won four straight league titles, a period during which he posted a record of 127-5 in conference events.
UCF, a nationally prominent program at which Derrick once served as an assistant coach, earned this year’s Big 12 title in Sarasota with 81 total points. KU came in second with 61, followed by Tulsa (53), West Virginia (36), Old Dominion (26) and Kansas State (20).
Junior Ruby Moritz-Cammack was named All-Big 12 along with freshman Claire Van Mater, juniors Sophie Pense and Gracie Shepherd and senior Kara Lyons.
Four boats of Jayhawks recorded second-place finishes behind UCF and one came in third after UCF and Tulsa.
The III Eight boat of freshman Samantha Ronen (coxswain), her classmates Ashley Herbert and Suyin Howard, sophomores Audrey Crowson, Morgan Tenpenny and Martina Zbiralova, junior Andronika Dyer and seniors Catherine Bachovchin and Lauren Burright posted a time of six minutes, 47.058 seconds behind UCF’s 6:41.058.
The II Four boat with junior Kayley Chism as coxswain along with freshmen Hollis Andreen and Naida Paschal, sophomore Isabel Smikahl and senior Abigail Steffen finished in 7:32.848, about 13 seconds shy of the Knights.
The I Four of sophomores Grace Bailey and Emerson Linthicum, junior Alexandra Robinson and senior Rory Brennan recorded another runner-up finish at 7:24.338.
KU’s final second-place showing came with the II Eight crew featuring sophomore coxswain Kyra Kavouridis as well as freshmen Kenzington Rector and Isabella Rossato, juniors Kathryn Borthwick, Sofia D’Ascenzo, Tya Drennen, Eva Robinson and Gretchen Schmierer Knust and senior Anastasiia Draha. That group beat out Tulsa for third place with its time of 6:42.588, trailing UCF’s 6:31.848.
The third-place group was the I Eight, which included the five all-league honorees along with freshman Katariina Peipman, sophomore Kaylie Hellner and seniors Aylin Schafer and Lindsey True.
KU built on its third-place finish at the 2025 Big 12 Championship under its prior coaching staff, which at the time was the program’s best in nine years.
