Who Are We Looking For?

Marist Rowing seeks passionate and competitive athletes to join our growing tradition of excellence. The team actively recruits athletes from the ranks of high school and youth club rowing teams from around the world as well as accepting walk-on athletes with past rowing experience AND true novices with no experience at all. Since 1961 Marist has combined all three of these groups to produce competitive crews filled with a diversity of backgrounds and athletic experiences. Common among successful oarsmen is a family oriented team mindset, positive and forward focused thinking, competitive spirit, and personal discipline across both athletic and academic endeavors. The crew strives to promote and enhance these traits through hard work and competition among the fastest crews in the nation!

Recruiting Process

How to Start Your Journey With Marist Rowing

Step 1: Complete the Marist Rowing Online Recruiting Questionnaire

This will send your profile directly to the coaching and recruiting coordinators and also get your name and email on our recruiting mailing list to get general info about the team and recruiting events and deadlines throughout the recruiting process.

Step 2: Attend a Virtual Open House to Meet the Staff and the Crew

Marist Rowing coaches and current athletes hold an open monthly online recruiting zoom chat that we call a “virtual open-house”. These are open to any and all current juniors and seniors. The events last about an hour. We start with an open Q and A with the coaching staff and athletes to answer questions about the team, academics, and basic information about the college. At the end of the chat, the coaches will depart and leave recruits to meet and mix with our current student athletes to ask questions about topics related to campus life and rowing life at Marist. The Virtual Open House takes place on the first Monday of every month at 8pm EST. Our next events are listed below OR can be accessed at the following link:

Step 3: Visit us on Campus

Marist is a special place and we believe that nothing can demonstrate the positive attributes of our team better than visiting our beautiful campus on the bank of the Hudson River and meeting with admissions representatives and coaches about attending the college. If you’re interested in coming for a visit we recommend getting a tour through our admissions department or taking a self guided tour as seen on our admissions page. We also recommend our new specialty sunset tours to get spectacular views of the sunset over the Hudson River! Once you schedule your tour, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the coaching team to set up a time to meet and get a tour of our rowing facilities located right on campus and our brand new athletics complex.

Step 4: Join us for an Official Visit

We hope that after you have sorted through your options for your collegiate education, Marist is among your top choices both for our exceptional academics and for our competitive rowing team. If this is you, we’d love for you to join us for an official visit during the fall of your senior year. During your visit you will attend practices, join our student athletes for classes, eat at the Marist dining hall, and spend the night with members of the crew on campus. If you’re interested in coming for a visit contact the coaches!

Step 5: Apply to Marist

If you’ve completed steps 1-4 then the next step is to send in your application to Marist College. Marist makes it super easy to apply using the common app and standardized testing is optional with over 60% of our incoming students earning placement at Marist based on their Transcript and GPA without SAT or ACT scores. We strongly recommend that most of our prospective athletes apply EARLY ACTION which gains you entrance early (around late December) while still giving you the time and freedom to enroll as late at the regular decision deadline. This gives all applicants more time to deal with step 6!

Step 6: Financing Your College College Experience

As you receive your admissions materials to Marist you will usually receive an initial offer of academic merit scholarships based on your academic performance so far in high school. Students can maximize these rewards by continuing and improving their academic success in the early terms of their senior year. Next, students will want to submit the FAFSA form to Marist College to help earn and receive need based grants and loans based on your family’s needs. Marist Men’s Rowing does not offer any dedicated athletics scholarships BUT we work closely with each of our candidates to help maximize their financial offering at Marist. During this part of the process it is important that you stay in contact with the coaching staff who will work with you and admissions reps to achieve the correct balance to enable you to attend Marist. If Marist is your top choice but you’re receiving a more tempting offer elsewhere, we want to know!

Step 7: Enrolling

Marist coaches, admissions representatives and financial services staff will work closely with you to achieve our best possible financial offer. Now it’s time to enroll! If you have any last minute questions or concerns let us know. The coaches are here to be your resource! Once you have sent in paperwork to enroll at Marist, inform the coaching staff and give your family a big hi five and a hug. You’re now a Red Fox! Welcome to the crew! Many of our recruited athletes like to participate in signing day ceremonies with their scholastic or club teams. Let us know and we’ll send you a copy of our signing day form for your special day.

Step 8: After Enrolling

Congrats; you are now enrolled at Marist College for the upcoming year! Your journey is just beginning and you’re going to have LOTS of things to do to prepare in the coming weeks and months. After enrolling and sending in your first year deposit, you'll be receiving details from the college about the next steps of your academic pathway. For the rowing team, you’ll want to make sure that the coaches know you have enrolled. You will soon receive invitations to join our current team on their BAND, the app we use for communications. Through this app, you’ll gain access to chat with your new team mates including your fellow incoming freshmen. If you’re interested in sharing housing with other rowers you may work with these athletes to mutually request housing together. Coaches will work with the registrar’s office to make sure that your fall class schedule does not conflict with our practice times. Important paperwork will be sent out by our medical and compliance teams to make sure you are ready to participate as soon as you arrive on campus. There is no “pre-season” for the rowing teams and all team members will return to campus on the normal time table to start fall classes. Advice and recommendations for summer training will be available on the BAND and you’ll want to stay active and be prepared to arrive fit and ready to compete for your first fall season. We look forward to seeing you on the Hudson!

Important Dates and Deadlines

Early Decision I Applications Due : November 15th

Early Action Applications Due: November 15th

Early Decision II Applications Due: February 15th

Regular Decision Applications Due: February 15th

Transfer Admissions = Rolling

Enrollment Deadline = May 1st

Virtual Open House Links

Marist Men’s Rowing Recruiting FAQ

What division and status is Marist Rowing?

Marist Rowing is a Division 1 Varsity sports team. The men’s rowing team is one of 10 varsity men’s sports teams on campus and members of the crew receive the same recognition and perks as other varsity student athletes on campus.

How many athletes are on the Marist Men’s Rowing Team?

The men’s rowing team is the most inclusive varsity sport on Marist’s campus not only recruiting talented HS athletes but also accepting experienced walk-on rowers and actively recruiting novice walk-ons. The team has ranged in size from 20-40 oarsmen and 5-10 coxswains depending on the year and a variety of other factors. The rowing team DOES make cuts based on performance and progression of our athletes however we do not a set number of “slots” for oarsmen and, in general, any athlete making consistent progression in their fitness and technical ability and meeting our minimum erg standards , team culture, and values will be welcome at the boathouse.

What range of ERG scores does the Men’s Rowing Team look for in recruits?

The average incoming athlete has pulled a a 2K score in the range of 6:25-6:35 in their senior year of HS. Athletes with scores between 7:00 and 6:50 should not be surprised to receive contacts from our coaching staff in their junior year but will be expected to hit this standard by senior year winter. The fastest incoming erg score in the last 5 years was 6:12. The slowest recruited athlete was a 6:55. Athletes should keep in mind that erg scores are just one of MANY factors we look for in prospective recruits. Oarsmen with erg scores slower than this range may not be actively recruited by our coaching staff but are welcome to reach out and come for visits and tours of our facilities. These athletes frequently join the team as experienced walk-ons find great success with the team!

What kind of grades do you look for in prospective athletes?

While any athlete who can achieve admission to Marist is welcome to come out for the men’s rowing team, strong performance in the classroom is an essential tool for maximizing your financial rewards at Marist and is also an expectation of team membership once you arrive on campus. In general, athletes with High School GPA above 3.7 will do very will in our admissions process, those with scores between 3.3 and 3.6 will receive mixed awards depending on the variety of other factors in your applications, those between 3.0 and 3,3 will likely achieve acceptance in the application process but receive limited funding depending on other factors and those below 3.0 will struggle to achieve admission. Marist acceptance rate is around 55%

How well do Marist oarsmen balance their rowing and academic lives?

The Men’s Rowing Team at Marist has made excellence in the classroom a priority. An academics-first team, there are no athletics scholarships for rowing at the college meaning our athletes meaning that our athletes are participating members of the crew because they are passionate about the sport, training, and competing together and not because they are paid to be here. The Marist rowing team typically holds a team average GPA in the 3.3-3.5 range and has been the 2nd highest performing men’s team in the classroom for the last 10+ years(behind tennis). Oarsmen have been high flyers in nearly every academic department on campus including numerous graduates of the Marist Honors Program. Team training takes place primarily in the morning and rarely interferes with academic life. Travel for racing and training nearly never interferes with academic schedules and takes place on school vacations or weekends. Due to Marist’s strategically central location, we are close to several major rowing hubs and find great competition close to home!

What does a Typical Week of Training Look Like at Marist

The Men’s Rowing Team completes roughly 16-20 hours of training a week between mandatory practice times and self reported extra workouts. In a typical week, Marist oarsmen will attend mandatory morning practices from 6:00am to 8:30am. On weekday afternoons, our athletes will complete voluntary extra sessions in their own time (usually steady state erging, cross training, or lifting) and reported on CrewLab. In general afternoon work is not “policed” but the team culture built by your fellow oarsmen, coxswains and coaches will demand consistent participation. The team will train for a slightly longer session ususally from 7am to 10am on Saturday mornings and then team members will have the remainder of Saturday and all day Sunday off. Athletes will typically get at least one full weekend off each term worked around our training and racing schedule and if our racing calendar demands us to race on a Sunday you will usually have the following Monday off.

Who Does Marist Race and What Does the Racing Calendar Look Like?

Marist’s Men’s Rowing racing calendar is highly variable depending on the season and the year and the needs of the team but there are consistent races and rivals. In general Marist is one of roughly 15 programs that we say are on the “IRA Bubble” (ranked roughly 18th-30th in the nation) In the fall the team will attend at 3-4 head races. One of those is the Head of the Charles Regatta where we race our varsity eight and varsity four. The other 2-3 events have in the past been some mixture of: Navy Day Regatta (Philly, PA), Quinsigamond Snake Regatta (Worcester, MA), Head of the Housatonic (Shelton, CT), Head of the Fish (Saratoga Springs, NY), or the Princeton Chase (Princeton, NJ). The team attends two training camps. The first is for the top 18 oarsmen in the 2nd week of January (before return to school) in Florida. The second is a full team camp during spring break in Virginia. The spring season will consist of roughly 5-6 regular season races, a conference championship and then the IRA National Championship. Common opponents in the regular season are MIT, Holy Cross, Georgetown, Temple, Drexel, St. Joes, LaSalle, Colgate, and a variety of other D1 and D3 east coast opponents. The team will travel to a major race outside our region every 3-5 years (depending on the crew’s performance). Recent major travel included the Lake Las Vegas Invitational in 2019 and the San Diego Crew Classic in 2022. Marist competes in the NIRC conference against a field of roughly 18 programs of which the most competitive are MIT, Hobart, Williams, Bates, Trinity, Wesleyan and Tufts. Marist has two potential pathways to IRA qualification for the entire squad. The first is consistent strong performances during the regular season and the second is winning the NIRC championship. If the team fails to qualify with the full squad we will still send our top four athletes to compete at the IRA in the Open 4+ category.