On Monday, November 26 at 4 pm, five seniors from Asheville Youth Rowing Association will have a signing ceremony at the Jack Gartner Boathouse, Lake Julian Park, to row in college next year.
The seniors are:
Adelaide Lammers, a senior at Carolina Day School, will sign to row at Notre Dame next year. Adelaide will be the first Asheville Youth Rowing Association (AYRA) alum to attend and row at Notre Dame.
Ranait Fitzgerald, a senior at TCRoberson, will sign to row at UNC-Chapel Hill next year. Ranait will be the sixth AYRA alum to sign to row at Chapel Hill.
Gracie Mayer, a senior at ACReynolds, will sign to be a coxswain at UNC-Chapel Hill next year. Gracie will be the second AYRA coxswain to sign to be a coxswain at Chapel Hill.
Alex and Rachel Willey, twin sisters and both seniors at West Henderson High School, will sign to row at Drexel next year. Alex and Rachel will be the first AYRA alums to attend and row at Drexel.
Two more seniors, Phoebe Haller and Max O’Halloran, are being actively recruited but have not yet committed.
Adelaide, Ranait and Phoebe were in the AYRA Women’s Varsity 4 at USRowing Youth Nationals in June 2018 with the 7th fastest time in the United States.
Alex, Rachel and Gracie were in the AYRA Women’s 2 Varsity 4 at Southeast Regionals in May 2018 with the fastest time in the southeast for that event.
Max O’Halloran was in the AYRA Men’s Varsity 4 at USRowing Youth Nationals in 2018 with the 7th fastest time in the United States. He also won Gold (first place) at the 2018 HOOCH out of 97 boats in his event.
Asheville Youth Rowing Association has twelve seniors who will graduate in May 2019. Five have already committed and two more will most likely commit in the spring.
AYRA’s first recruited rower was in 2010. Since 2012, each graduating class has had rowers and/or coxswains recruited to row in college.