A season of togetherness, a season of progress

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

The 2016-17 Lehigh Rowing season ended with the women's team easily breaking the school record for points at a Patriot League Championship and the Men's Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight in the petite finals at the prestigious Dad Vail Regatta.

The results are a byproduct of tremendous growth, both individually and most importantly, as a team. The season saw strong leadership, and buy-in, which led to tangible success.

"The team really came together and collectively decided that we wanted a championship culture," said junior Jules Malachin. "Coach Conley made it explicitly clear that we, the student-athletes, are the ones who set the standard. I think this is something we knew, but needed it to be said for it to really sink in. It ultimately came down to trusting the process and making sure that every member of the team was well aware of what that meant. The change and commitment from the athletes themselves, by holding their teammates accountable to the same mentality, really made our success this season."

The turning point came towards the end of spring break when the Mountain Hawks took their rowing to another level.

"The team had a good culture, but at the time, they were struggling with the sense of accountability," said Lehigh head coach Brian Conley. "At the end of spring break, they were really determined to hold each other accountable as teammates."

The student-athletes did just that, led by the leadership of Malachin and senior Maddie Wescott for the women, and senior Zach Maguire and junior Chet Bickhart for the men.

"Rowing is one of those sports that calls on its athletes to wake up quite early and to practice long hours," said Bickhart. "For this reason, everyone on the team has an accountability buddy that makes sure they're up and ready for practice. We also intentionally reach out to each other when we know we might be late or have conflicts with schedules, as just one example of looking out for each other. We're finding ourselves achieving more success because we have all tasted winning, and it's quite addicting. Our drive to succeed comes from our motivation to pull our program to a championship and to see our teammates get across the finish line first."

The results speak for themselves. After spring break, the Mountain Hawks swept the River Cup, then the Women's Varsity Eight defeated perennial Division II National Championship contender Mercyhurst by more than 10 seconds, Lehigh featured seven finalists at the Kerr Cup and the women's squad swept Holy Cross for a second straight year.

"Our leaders really took hold of the team, particularly in the spring, understanding they had an opportunity to really do something special," said Conley. "The success just started snowballing."

Both the Women's and Men's Varsity Eights led the way, enjoying individual success and serving as strong leaders, and role models, for their teammates.

"If you don't have everybody bought in within a boat - and that's nine people - the boat will go slowly," said Conley. "To get everybody on the same page, it usually takes someone having some level of success. The Varsity Eight started to have that little taste of success where everybody started to understand they could be fast, too. That feeling perpetuated throughout the team, with more and more buy-in. The biggest motivating factor for any athlete is improvement, and that's what we started to see."

The season saw a perpetual build to the Mountain Hawks performing their best late in the season. The success began with necessary work over last summer.

"Our student-athletes really took the summer and trained the whole time without losing any type of cardiovascular endurance," said Conley. "They were ready to go in the fall, which made a huge difference and a huge impact in our training. They were motivated by the fact that we were planning to return to the Head of the Charles for the first time in several years. They were also motivated simply by the fact that they just wanted to be a better team."

In order to reach new limits, athletes can't be afraid to fail. The Mountain Hawks began approaching each day fearlessly, understanding that failing is part of the process of improving.

"This team showed up and was willing to experiment and try new things as best they could, whether they were going to be successful or not," said Conley. "It ultimately led to them putting the same mindset out onto the race course on a regular basis."

The Mountain Hawks are improving in many aspects, including in the weight room and in their erg scores, but intangible aspects like rowing for each other, are just as important factors.

"It's important to have pride in what you do, but not be proud of your part in it," said Bickhart. "The difference here lies in how you let pride change your heart. Having pride in what you do allows you to take initiative, seek goals, push others to success and drive passion. However, being proud of your contribution to the mission opens the door to arrogance, unsportsmanlike conduct and resentment from teammates.

"An ever-constant reminder in the sport of rowing is that your teammates are the ones that get you across the finish line," Bickhart continued. "When you sit in a boat, you pull for the guys around you, you pull so they might have a medal around their neck. You pull with the confidence that they're doing the same for you as well. Therefore, I do not have pride in myself for the program's rise to success; in every way it has been a collective movement. But I am proud of where the team has gone and excited to see the passion in the hearts of my teammates come next fall."

Trust is essential among teammates to be successful.

"When you're rowing for the person in front of you and the person behind you, there needs to be another level of trust," said Conley. "It's important that you literally do everything you can outside of rowing to be the best teammate you possibly can. When you look at both of our Varsity Eights this year, it was a huge factor for them, and contributor to the success they found."

There have been multiple examples of trust playing a major impact.

"Having six freshmen men in the Varsity Eight is unusual," said Conley. "On the women's side, Elise Fredericks came up on the upper end of things even when she faced people who were faster than her (on paper). I think again, that comes down to trust - not because they were pulling harder or less for another person, but simply because there's another level of competition when you can 100 percent trust the people around you."

In the end, the Lehigh women tied for sixth place at the Patriot League Championship with 26 points, led by the Varsity Eight and Varsity Four each finishing fifth. The Mountain Hawks were able to make great strides in results, which is a byproduct of the process – all the tireless hours put in by student-athletes and coaches.

"If we had to pick three core values of our program, it would be respect and trust, which then creates a family atmosphere," said Conley. "We trust that each other is doing the right thing. And because we trust each other, it's built a level of respect within each other."

Even more so than some other sports, rowing demands tremendous buy-in. Teammates rely on each other to an even greater degree than other sports.

"Getting buy-in can be difficult, simply because not everybody's a recruited athlete," said Conley. "Not everybody comes in knowing our values and knowing exactly what to expect. It takes a mentorship to help create that environment and I think our leaders have really created that sense of mentoring across the team. Whether you're recruited or whether you're a walk-on, it doesn't matter.

"Our mindset is, 'I respect that you come from someplace different, but show me the work you're going to put in so I can trust you because you're part of our family and we're all in this together.'"

The Mountain Hawks head into the offseason feeling optimistic and excited for the future. To continue pushing the envelope next season, hard work needs to continue.

"First and foremost, our team has to train over the summer," said Conley. "We want to be better than this past year at the Head of the Charles, and we want to really hit the fall hard. With so many young athletes this year, we had to take 10 steps back just to get everyone up to speed. Now, we have a team that's been through it, they know exactly what to expect and we can take off from here."

"We need to continue fostering a culture that's committed to attacking everyday like a racer," said Malachin, who recently became Lehigh's first-ever CRCA All-Region honoree, earning first team laurels. "We need to continue trusting the process, holding each other accountable and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Especially in times of adversity, as student-athletes we'll raise the bar higher each year by empowering those around us, particularly the incoming freshmen. I'd like to see the attack mentality trickle down from the veterans down to the recruits so it's clear that we're a team on the rise."

In the end, it's important to remember why all the student-athletes are rowing, because of a deep passion and love for the sport.

"Success starts with passion," said Bickhart. "As this team continues to grow and push the boundaries, we must remember our foundation of passion and allow it to fuel our movement forward. Teams, however, do not become great on passion alone and that's when discipline is needed. Our success will continue to grow through the team's discipline to train when no one is watching, to train in the offseason, when no one is over your shoulder watching your reps and counting your strokes."

Although the program was headed in the right direction even before 2016-17, seeing the hard work lead to results is only motivating to continue reaching new heights.

"You put in so much work and so much effort for so long," said Conley. "We have the longest season of any other NCAA sport. To find success against some really fast teams, I can only see it as motivation to create new standards and rise up to them."

Completed Event: Women's Rowing versus Patriot League Championships on May 15, 2026 , , 8th of 9

Completed Event: Women's Rowing at Colgate on May 2, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Women's Rowing at Lake Wheeler Invite on April 24, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Women's Rowing at Knecht Cup on April 11, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Women's Rowing at Drexel and George Washington on April 4, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Women's Rowing versus Mountain Hawk Invite on March 28, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Women's Rowing versus Class Day Regatta on November 1, 2025 ,

Lehigh University Athletics

A season of togetherness, a season of progress

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