Barb “Ry” Hills retired from a long and successful coaching career this spring, more than 50 years after playing a major role in establishing women’s rowing at the University of New Hampshire.

As an athlete, Hills won both the pair and eight at the 1976 United States Rowing Association national championships and finished third in the Olympic trials, missing a spot on the team by 1.3 seconds.

She became the first women’s rowing coach at the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1978. In the early 1980s, she coached Dartmouth’s novice women to two Eastern Sprints wins. She also coached the U.S. Junior National Team, UNH, and Pioneer Valley.

For the past seven years, after founding Megunticook Rowing in Camden, Maine, Hills coached at Bowdoin College with head coach Doug Welling.

“They have truly functioned as co-head coaches,” said retired Bowdoin coach Gil Birney.

In total, Hills coached crews to 15 New England Rowing Championship medals (11 gold), a women’s team-points trophy and seven medals at Dad Vails, and five medals (three gold) at ACRA championships. Bowdoin won the women’s point trophy at this year’s ACRA championship.

Mills is the sister of longtime Radcliffe coach Liz O’Leary and the mother of three children, including Lizzie Mitchell, associate head coach at Boston University.

“All in all, Mom, you are a total badass,” Mitchell said at a retirement gathering. “You are my daily inspiration, my guiding light, and the reason I am coaching today.”

For the first time since the NCAA’s founding in 1906, colleges may pay athletes directly, after a federal judge in early June approved the settlement of an antitrust suit against the NCAA. Beginning July 1, colleges can pay up to $20.5 million a year to their athletes, with football players expected to receive 75 percent of the money; basketball players, 20 percent; and athletes who play other sports, such as rowing, splitting the remaining five percent. Leagues can opt out of the settlement, and the Ivy League has indicated that it will.

Three men will be named winners of The Oarsman, a new award meant to emulate the Heisman Award, one each from men’s Division III, the lightweight league, and the Division I heavyweight league.

Finalists for the Division III award are Tufts University’s Max Landers, Trinity College’s Jack Carr, and Williams College’s Owen Maier. Lightweight finalists are MIT’s Marc Rizk, Dartmouth College’s Ryan Tripp, and Harvard University’s Brahm Erdmann.

The heavyweight finalists are Princeton University’s Patrick Long, Brown University’s Oliver Page-Kuhr, University of California-Berkeley’s Frederick Breuer, University of Pennsylvania’s Sam Sullivan, University of Washtington’s Logan Ullrich, Harvard University’s Gabriel Obholzer, Dartmouth College’s William Bender, and Syracuse University’s Lachlan Doust.

Ballots were distributed to head coaches of Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) head coaches, former coaches, rowing media members, Olympic medalists who competed in the IRA, and team captains of recent IRA winning teams.

Winners will be announced Friday, July 11.

U.S. National Team crews won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the second and final stop of the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. The U.S. women’s four won gold over early-leading Australia, the women’s eight won silver, and the men’s quad won bronze.

“We did a really good job of executing our plan, just staying internal,” said Azja Czajkowski of the U.S. four, which also raced as part of the women’s eight. “We just trust each other a lot.”

The men’s quad’s medal was the first for the U.S. in the World Rowing Cup event since 2014. U.S. Olympic single sculler Jacob Plihal joined Andrew Leroux, Cedar Cunningham, and Christopher Carlson in the quad, which also doubled up with the sixth-place U.S. men’s four to finish fifth in the final-only eights race.

The Lucerne regatta completed a successful training and racing trip for the U.S. National Team, as USRowing’s CEO for high performance Josy Verdonkschot now returns to the U.S. to train and select crews for worlds trials, August 1-3 on Mercer Lake, New Jersey. The 2025 World Rowing Championships are September 21-28, outside of Shanghai.

“Great to have some racing to see where we are and test some combinations,” said Verdonkschot.

Romania’s Olympic-champion women’s eight won at Lucerne, as did the German men’s eight, marking a return to the top for Germany. Recent University of Washington national champion Logan Ullrich jumped in the single after the IRA regatta and won at Lucerne.

“I dreamed about this for years,” said New Zealand Olympian Ullrich. “I didn’t think it would come that quick in my sculling career. I’m just blown away.”

Great Britain’s Lauren Henry won the women’s single in Lucerne. Henry also won the European Rowing Championships and the Varese stop of the World Rowing Cup.

Romania topped the medal table in Lucerne after winning three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal. Overall, Great Britain won the 2025 World Rowing Cup.