May 17, 2026, Oak Ridge, TN.– The Lady Panthers Varsity Eight finished 9th out of 18 entries from across the county at this year's very competitive American Collegiate Rowing Association Championship (ACRA) Regatta held May 15 - 17.  Florida Tech was the only college from Florida competing in the premiere Varsity 8 event.
The Varsity Eight placed 3rd behind Purdue University and University of California Santa Barbara in their Friday afternoon heat which advanced them to semi-finals Saturday afternoon. 
In their semi-final, the Lady Panthers had a slow start but gradually moved up against the field of six boats over the 2000-meter course to edge out Michigan State by 0.8 seconds for fourth place.  Purdue won the semi-final followed by Vanderbilt University and West Point.  The fourth-place finish put them in the B final on Sunday afternoon.
The B Final proved again to be another grueling race with Florida Tech pushing hard during the second half of the race to capture third place behind winning Bowdoin College and second place University of California Irvine.  Falling behind Florida Tech were University of Rhode Island, Long Beach State and Michigan State.   Middlebury College won the Grand Final event with Purdue and UC Santa Barbara taking Silver and Bronze.
The Lady Panthers performance at this national regatta was remarkable for a squad of 11 athletes competing against much larger collegiate programs.  
This was the last collegiate race for seniors Brynn Romberger, Ashton Clark and McKenna Barr.  These three women along with last year's graduate Sydney Frieberger were the only women to stay on the team in 2023 after the program was moved from Varsity to Club status.  However, these tenacious women bonded together and continued to train like a Varsity program racking up many wins as well as being role models to their younger teammates.  
 
Full regatta results can be see via Herenow at: https://legacy.herenow.com/results/#/races/21330/results