Community News/ Nov 23

Four ONGPC Rowers Commit to NCAA Schools for 2024

Four of the newest rowers in the NCAA currently train at the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre.

Michael Gore (Syracuse), Lucas Maroney (Dartmouth), Ella McKinley (Syracuse), and Clara Van Dyk (Louisville) all recently committed to NCAA schools for the 2024-25 school year. While the four teammates are all taking the next step in their rowing careers at the same time, they all took different paths to earn their NCAA scholarships. For Maroney, the ONGPC veteran of the group, his move to the Ivy League next year will mark the culmination of four years training at the ONGPC, which began before he even entered high school.

“I started training at the ONGPC the first year it opened, it was actually a few days before I started in a high school, which is pretty insane considering I’m going to graduate in a couple months,” said Maroney. “I’ve been in it for the long run you could say. I was the first person to show up to practice on the very first day, so you can say I was the first ever ONGPC athlete at the Centre.”

Over the last three-plus years at the ONGPC Maroney has made steady progress, earning a spot on Canada’s U19 World Rowing Championships team the last two years. In 2022, he rowed in the men’s double in Varese, Italy and earlier this year he raced in the single, placing 10^th overall on the 2024 Olympic course in Paris, France. Throughout the indoor season, Maroney is looking to gain some strength and pack on a few pounds in advance of building speed on the water, with an eye towards competing in front of a home crowd before going away to university.

“My goal for next summer is to compete on the junior national team again,” said Maroney. “That would be really exciting since it’s being held in St. Catharines, so being able to have my family there watching would be pretty cool.”

The newest members of the Syracuse Orange’s rowing program are both relatively new to the sport, as Gore and McKinley recently transferred to rowing from other sports. McKinley plied her trade in synchronized swimming before becoming a centralized athlete at the ONGPC last summer, while the 6-foot-6 Gore was a basketball player before centralizing at the ONGPC just over a year ago. Both McKinley and Gore were recruited to rowing through the RBC Training Ground, a nationwide talent identification and athlete-funding program.

“I think I’ve been able to find where I can push my limits and get to the end of the tank and see how far I can push myself,” said McKinley on what she’s learned since dedicating herself full-time to rowing at the ONGPC. “I think part of that has come from the coaching environment and part of that is training next to athletes who all have the same mindset.”

McKinley is aiming to make some strides in the weight room and on the erg this winter and her goal for 2024 is making a run at qualifying for the U23 National Team next summer. Gore’s first full season on the water in 2023 saw him compete as a member RCA’s CanAmMex team. He placed fourth in the single and second in the quad as part of the team, which competed in a regatta in Sarasota, Florida against development athletes from the United States, Mexico and Barbados He’s feeling more comfortable on the water with a year of experience behind him and is setting his sights on continued improvement in 2024.

“I have a lot of goals in mind in the next year, and performing better on the water is definitely one of them,” said Gore. “Starting out this year I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped. I’m way more confident on the water now, so hopefully it’ll be a different story. During the winter season, it’ll just be about pounding out the miles and ripping it on the C2 erg to prepare for next year.”

Like Maroney, Van Dyk is a veteran of the ONGPC training environment. She’s entering her third year at the Centre after joining in Sept. 2021. After a few years of competing on the domestic regatta circuit, Van Dyk qualified for the U19 World Championships Team in 2023 as a member of the women’s quad.

“I didn’t have much club rowing before I got to the ONGPC,” said Van Dyk on the progress she’s made over the last few years. “But I learned that you could have some bad days and it’s not going to affect your next practice. Everyone has bad days, and you just move on and make the next one count.”

Van Dyk hopes to continue to build confidence off a strong 2023 season throughout the winter and like McKinley, is eyeing a spot on the U23 National Team next summer before becoming a Louisville Cardinal.

When I got to Dartmouth I really loved the campus and the feeling around campus. Also, the feeling around the team itself, the alumni support the team has, how they interact with each other, and the waterway they have to train on. There were a lot of pros that were hard to look past. It really came down to a gut decision and I’m really happy with my decision.
Lucas Maroney

I was looking for a competitive environment with supportive teammates and coaches that also has a great overall university experience. I think Syracuse did a really good job of putting that all together with their high performance rowing program.
Ella McKinley

I’d been talking to Syracuse since the beginning of the year, around March. I made a good connection the coaches and when I went to visit the school, the guys there were a great group of guys, and the school was absolutely amazing. You have to think as a student and an athlete, and it was the right fit student wise, and definitely the right fit athlete wise.
Michael Gore

The athletes and the coaches really drew me to Louisville. It was a hard choice, but the coaches made it clear they supported me on an open weight team even as a lightweight. And then once I met everyone, they seemed to have the same mindset as me. They were very determined and that’s what drew me there.
Clara Van Dyk

Since opening in Sept. 2020, the ONGPC has been home to 41 centralized and 52 de-centralized athletes. After three years a total of 40 athletes who have trained at the ONGPC have gone to row in universities across Canada and the United States and ONGPC athletes have qualified for 33 RCA Teams.

For more information on the ONGPC, visit About the ONGPC.