Holders: Princeton University, USA
Entries: 8
My personal favourite event at Henley Royal Regatta (despite being a losing finalist myself), The Ladies’ Challenge Plate, promises some spectacular action over three days of racing in 2025. It’s an event that draws such interesting entries, including several composites that will race for the first and last time at this event. It also pits fantastic crews against each other that would otherwise never have met. This year promises some tantalising matchups: Leander‘s top eight has gone from strength to strength in recent weeks, but Oxford Brookes have some undeniable momentum – can they reclaim The Ladies’ Challenge Plate’? And what will Dartmouth, the collegiate crew that probably had the most surprising season of all over in the USA, bring to the table? Can the provisional GB U23s mount a serious challenge to take the title? This will be a fascinating contest, and I can’t wait.
I’ll preview each of the eight entries in this category before predicting which crews will make the weekend and which will win the event.
Brigantine Rowing Club, USA
This entry looks to be a composite from several collegiate lightweight programs, mostly drawing from Cornell. Cornell has had a difficult season, chasing Harvard closely at the Eastern Sprints (but settling for the silver) before having their entries pulled out from the IRA National Championship. It’s good to see these guys jumping back into the fray for a Henley Royal Regatta project. The Cornell athletes are Jack Savell, Emmett Patterson, Sam Alston, Nathan Bechard and Peter Albrecht, all of whom were part of the silver-medalling 1V this season. They were also second at the Head of the Charles in the lightweight eight, and recorded an overall 8-2 win-loss record for the regular season. They’re joined by Penn lightweight athletes Troy Riesenberger and Nathaniel Sass; Riesenberger raced in the 1V at Eastern Sprints, taking home fourth, and earning a silver in the 2V at IRAs. Sass was in the 1V all season, coming home fourth at the IRAs; he is also a U23 international from the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2021 and 2022 in the lightweight pair. Rounding out the lineup is Dartmouth lightweight Sam Terry, who was in the fifth-place-finishing 1V at Eastern Sprints and went on to surprise the field by winning a silver medal at the IRAs in an astonishingly quick time of 5:32.
There’s some real quality in this entry, and the Cornell guys will particularly want to end a troubled season on a high. I applaud their ambition entering the Ladies’; I think they will probably be somewhat overmatched here, but if they’ve had a good block of training together, I see no reason why they can’t cause a bit of an upset.
Dartmouth College, USA
It’s worth mentioning that last year, the Princeton 1V entered The Ladies’ Challenge Plate’ in the exact same position that Dartmouth find themselves in this year: an undefeated regular season, a silver medal at Eastern Sprints, and a bronze at the IRAs. Princeton, of course, went on to win this Trophy; can Dartmouth do the same? They are undoubtedly one of the favourites here, if not the favourite outright. This crew has consistently defied expectations, ever since the Head of the Charles, where they placed third overall behind Cambridge and Harvard. They then opened their regular season in April with a historic win over the Yale 1V in the Olympic Axe Dual, a race that Dartmouth has never won since its inception, 21 years ago. Head Coach Wyatt Allen has really done some fantastic things with the Big Green and has firmly taken them into the highest echelons of collegiate rowing.
Looking at the personnel in this lineup, its easy to see where some of that speed is coming from. The standout talent is William Bender, a fifth-year senior this year after he took last year off to train for the Olympic Games. Since joining Dartmouth in 2020, Bender has stepped on at a pretty astonishing pace, representing the USA at U23 level in 2021 in the silver-medalling eight, and stepping onto the Senior National Team in 2023. He was in the USA pair at the World Rowing Championships in 2023, finishing fifth, and rowed in the same boat for the Paris Olympic Games, finishing tenth overall. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to suggest that Bender is right at the forefront of Dartmouth’s improvement over the past few years. Behind him is American U23 athlete Julian Thomas, who won silver in the eight at the U23 World Rowing Championships last year. Fellow U23 Miles Hudgins sits in the engine room; he has rowed twice at U23s, winning a silver in the USA eight at the U23 World Rowing Championships 2022, and gold in the coxed four in 2024. And who could forget Isaiah Harrison, the titanic freshman who won medals at U19 and U23 level in the single in 2021 and 2022, coached by his father, and who clocked an unbelievable 5:48 for 2K at just 17 years old. It’s clear his impact on the Big Green has also been pretty tremendous.
These guys are a powerful, motivated unit with a ton of momentum from this season and a real point to prove that they are a force to be reckoned with. I would not be surprised to see these guys in the final, and, frankly, I think they might have the best shot at winning this event outright.
Harvard University, USA
Harvard are coming off the back of a truly fantastic season. The Crimson virtually swept the Eastern Sprints, taking wins in the 1V, 2V and 3V; the 3V went on to win the IRAs, while the 1V and 2V were second to Washington. At the Harvard-Yale Race, Harvard swept the board, leaving Yale thoroughly outmatched. It’s a remarkable turn of fortunes for the historic program, and a testament to the coaching staff led by Charley Butt, as well as the student leadership.
This crew draws from the 1V, 2V and 3V. The top athletes here are Tyler Horler, who first stepped into the 1V back in 2023; he has two IRA silvers, from 2024 and 2025, and a U23 gold from the GB eight last year. He’s joined by fellow 1V athletes, Tom O’Sullivan, who also won a GB eight U23 gold (a common theme here) in 2022, and Irish international Jack Dorney, who has represented Ireland at the U19, U23 and senior level. Most recently, he rowed in the Irish pair at two World Rowing Cups in 2024. From the 2V, we have Sam Gallaudet, Ryan Link, Marcus Chung and Kiwi Sam Woodgate, and from the 3V, another Kiwi, stroke seat Josh Gordon. I think that these guys will have some really good speed, but intra-club composites like this do, I think, have an upper limit to success. The depth just isn’t quite there to form a crew that will be capable of winning this event – I think back to other 1V/2V/3V composites, like from Yale at the peak of their powers in 2022, that had decent runs in The Ladies’ Challenge Plate but were ultimately unable to hang with the pace of the top performers. Making the Saturday would be a big result for this Harvard crew.
Leander Club
The local favourites, Leander enter here after a hiatus last year, a loss in the final in 2023, and a win back in 2022. That 2022 crew was exceptional, humbling a California Berkeley 1V in the final that had swept the board in the US collegiate scene all year. Can this year’s crew repeat the feat? They certainly have the potential to. It’s been an up-and-down season for this unit; a rocky winter saw a fourth-place finish at Head of the River Race (Leander’s winning boat that day was basically a full-Caversham lineup). In The Boat Race fixture series, this crew fell short to Cambridge’s second eight, Goldie. However, since the start of the regatta season, they’ve been steadily showing better form. At Ghent, they pulled off a four-second win over the Polish National Team, and took second at the Metropolitan Regatta, behind Cambridge’s Grand Challenge Cup entry and well ahead of a fledgling Ladies’ lineup from Brookes (albeit a weaker crew than the one Brookes will actually field).
There’s plenty of strength and experience in this boat. Brookes graduate Jack Prior massively bolsters the lineup: he has several Henley Royal Regatta and U23 victories to his name. He’s joined by Boat Race winner and U23 silver medallist Kenny Coplan, who is also a Harvard grad. He’s joined by Head of the River winner Levin Graf, former Northeastern Husky Alex Abulhoff, and French Olympian Thibuad Turlan, who was part of France’s strong coxless four that ultimately finished second in the Olympic B-final. Coming back to the ‘Pink Palace’ is James Cartwright, who has been at Caversham all season; he’s an athlete who came up through the GB Start programme before attending Northeastern with Abulhoff. He’s a two-time U23 international for GB, won The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup with Leander back in 2021, and by all accounts is a rocket on the ergo (in the sub-5:50 territory). These guys were going to race at Marlow, but ended up scratching, so we haven’t seen this full lineup in action. I, for one, am excited to see what they can achieve; I think they are certainly ones to watch to take the win here.
Oxford Brookes University
Two Oxford Brookes lineups are entered here in an attempt to recapture the Trophy that the programme last won in 2023. The ‘B’ combination has plenty of experience: Temple Challenge Cup winners abound in the form of Max Mills (Temple 2023), Connor McGillan and Odhran Donaghy (2022). Charlie Chick is a Prince Albert Challenge Cup winner from 2024. They’re joined by some young talent: first years Sam Clarke and Morgan Haisman, both of whom were part of Brookes’ winning intermediate eight at BUCS just a couple of months ago.
It’s the ‘A’ boat, though, that hopes will be riding with, and I think they’re a safe bet for going pretty far in this competition. Coxed by U23 world champion from 2024, Tom Bryce, this boat is saturated with experience. The big names here are Evan Olson, the former Washington Husky returning from the USA after winning a bronze medal in the eight at the Paris Olympic Games. He’s been part of some really fantastic Brookes boats, including the Ladies’-winning crew from 2023. He’s joined by Jamie Copus, the British/American lightweight/heavyweight who was also part of that 2023 Ladies’ Challenge Plate boat (as well as a few others – he won his first Henley Royal Regatta with Brookes all the way back in 2014, in The Temple Challenge Cup). Copus has represented both GB and the USA internationally in a long career that has spanned well over a decade, featuring stints in several lightweight and heavyweight boat classes. His most recent international race was in 2023, in the lightweight quad at the World Rowing Championships. He’s now the Head Coach at Fordham University, but clearly can’t resist a run down the Henley Royal Regatta track with his alma mater.
Elsewhere in this boat, the Prince Albert Challenge Cup 2023 and Temple Challenge Cup 2024-winning Arnerich brothers, Marine and Dominiko, will be laying down the power alongside fellow Temple Challenge Cup 2024 champions Ben Newton and Ed Lemanowicz. Zach Day will be racing here and in the Visitors’; he’s a U23 world champion from last year with the GB eight, and a current Yale athlete. And, of course, we have Toby Lassen, a double U23 gold medallist, who has been a staple of top Brookes boats for years now with wins in The Temple Challenge Cup (2022), Ladies Challenge Plate (2023) and The Grand Challenge Cup (2024). He’s just made his senior debut at World Rowing Cup I, in the pair with Oxford athlete Felix Rawlinson. I’m sure Lassen will be desperate to make this four wins in a row at Henley Royal Regatta. This Brookes crew is in an unusual position, in that they aren’t entering here as overwhelming favourites – they were a little off the pace at the Metropolitan Regatta, in a slightly different lineup, and were second to London Rowing Club at Marlow just last weekend. Again, it wasn’t the final lineup, but this one was certainly close. The margin wasn’t huge, however, and I can’t help but think we haven’t seen close to what this crew is really capable of. Can they win? Absolutely.
Thames Rowing Club
This interesting entry features several US university students from various programmes, uniting under the Thames banner for a run at The Ladies’ Challenge Plate. I love projects like this – they’re real wildcards that fly completely under the radar but often race well, with the kind of reckless abandon you can only get from racing with zero stakes.
Two ex-St Paul’s athletes can be found here: bowman Sam Fowlie, now at Penn, who was part of last year’s National Schools’ Regatta-winning eight but was too old to compete in The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, and six-seat Felix Peerless, now at Yale, who won The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup twice with St Paul’s – first as a J16 in 2022, then as Captain in 2024. He’s been in the 3V this year, winning a bronze at Eastern Sprints and fourth at IRAs. Reuben Cook joins Fowlie in the bow pair. He’s a Princeton lightweight who has been in the 1V since 2023, winning the IRA National Championship title in that first year. He will serve as the Lightweight Captain next season. In three and four are Charlie Vachris and Sandro Scalfi. Both are at Stanford; Scalfi was part of the 2V that finished second in the B-final at IRAs. Dimitri Chamitoff sits at five; he’s a Washington Husky who rowed in the 4V this year. In stern pair: Tom Griffin and Farley Dimond-Brown. Former Westminster athlete Griffin is now at Brown, where he stepped up to the 1V this season, finishing fifth at the IRAs. Finally, Dimond-Brown, who learned to row at Latymer Upper, is currently at Cal Berkeley, where he has largely been in the 3V for the past few years.
I think it will be a tall order for these guys to progress through the first round here, given the quality of entries, and particularly when one looks at their sole result: sixth place in the B-final at Marlow Regatta, behind two junior crews (St Paul’s and Bedford). That being said, given their lack of time in this boat, they’ll likely step on quickly, and I’m sure they’ll have a little more in the back pocket come race day at Henley Royal Regatta.
Thames Rowing Club and Leander Club
Pretty much every year, the GB U23 team puts out a provisional men’s eight lineup to race The Ladies’ Challenge Plate’. Their fortunes are somewhat variable; last year, the U23s were beaten in the semifinal by Princeton, but in years prior they have made the final. This year’s entry is a little on the younger side, but there’s still plenty of talent for Caversham to work with.
Two Harvard 1V oarsmen form the backbone of this boat: Josh Brangan, the former St Edward’s School rower who won gold last year at U23 World Rowing Championships in the GB coxless four, and Cameron Beyki, who also won gold at U23s, this time in the GB eight. The experience of these guys will be instrumental for this boat. Stroking is the supremely technical Welshman Osian James; he was at Leander last season, racing in the Thames ‘Cuppies’ eight, but has now moved to Cal Berkeley. At six is Cameron Tasker, who was in the Washington 1V in his freshman and sophomore years, though mostly rowed in the 3V this year. Tristan Wenger sits in the heart of the engine room; he’s currently a freshman at Princeton, and was the fastest freshman 2K this year. Behind him is Syracuse oarsman Mack Carr, who rowed at U23s last year in the pair with Brookes athlete Richard Hawes. Elsewhere in the crew is Brown 1V rower Isaac Thurnham, one of Emanuel School’s best recent exports.
There’s a great mix of power and finesse here, and I think these guys have some really good potential. I don’t think they’ll have the speed to make the final, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them reach the weekend. GB’s record in men’s sweep at U23s has been pretty enviable over the past few years, and I’m sure these guys won’t disappoint.
Prediction
I feel fairly confident picking four crews to make the weekend: Leander, Brookes ‘A’, Dartmouth and Thames & Leander. I think these four crews are just a bit of a cut above the rest of the pack here, though I expect some serious challenges to come from the likes of Brookes ‘B’ and Harvard.
In terms of an overall winner, things get tricky. I think it will be between Leander, Brookes and Dartmouth. The safe option is probably Leander – they’re the home favourites, they’ve outperformed Brookes in recent races, and they’re undeniably a quality unit. However, I can’t shake the feeling that Brookes will step on pretty dramatically. The question is whether they’ll have the confidence and cohesion to race Henley Royal Regatta the way they have for the past few years after this very troubled season. And Dartmouth, if racing at peak fitness, may well be the on-paper fastest crew here; but that caveat – at peak fitness – is something that so often scuppers American collegiate entries, as training can be so hard to maintain in the afterglow of the IRAs.
I will go with Leander here as a prediction – but I have a sneaking suspicion I may be eating my words pretty soon.
Good luck to all crews.
Five Man
