Six Cavaliers To Compete at World Rowing Championships

Aug. 5, 2016

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Six University of Virginia rowers will compete at the 2016 World Rowing Championships on Aug. 21-28 at the Willem-Alexanderbaan Rowing Regatta Venue in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Current Cavalier rowers Erin Briggs (Orono, Minn.), Colette Lucas-Conwell (Palo Alto, Calif.), Georgia Ratcliff (Falls Church, Va.) and Heidi Long (Buckinghamshire, England) will compete in the Under 23 Championships. Former UVA standouts Kristine O’Brien and Kerry Shaffer (Maher) will compete in the Senior National Championships.

Briggs, Ratcliff and Lucas-Conwell will row for the United States in the women’s eight. Ratliff will also team with California’s Kendall Chase in the women’s pair. Long will row for Great Britain in the women’s eight.

Ratcliff and Lucas-Conwell helped the U.S. to the gold medal in the women’s eight at last year’s world U23 championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Briggs was part of a fourth-place boat in the women’s quad at last year’s world U23 championship, while Long is making her U23 World Championship debut. Ratcliff and Briggs earned Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Pocock All-America honors in 2016. Lucas-Conwell was named All-ACC First Team, while Long was named ACC Freshman of the Year.

O’Brien (Class of 2013) will represent the U.S. in the women’s four and Shaffer (Class of 2007) will row for Canada in the women’s four. O’Brien earned a gold medal in the women’s four during her senior international debut last season at the World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France. Shaffer has been competing internationally since 2005.

The 2016 World Rowing Championships will be unique in that the senior, junior and under 23 events will be held simultaneously for the first time.