Texas Rowing, ranked No. 1, will race against Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma at the 2026 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Rowing Championship scheduled for May 10 at Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The event is significant as Texas aims to defend its title after winning the inaugural SEC Rowing Championship last season. The team scored 83 points last year, narrowly beating Tennessee’s 78 points. Alabama finished third with 35 points and Oklahoma was fourth with 34 points. Texas won three of six races and placed second in the other three events.
This year’s race schedule includes competitions in III Four, III Eight, II Four, I Four, II Eight, and I Eight categories starting from early morning until an awards ceremony later that day. The Longhorns have established a strong record by winning ten consecutive conference rowing titles and securing fourteen overall conference championships since their exit from the Big 12 Conference.
In national competition history over the past decade, Texas has consistently finished among the top eight teams at NCAA Championship Regattas and claimed three of the last five NCAA crowns. Notably in recent years: they placed third in 2025; won national championships in both team and boat categories in 2024; secured fourth place with a boat title in four-person boats in 2023; and took national titles again in both I Eight boats for both the years of 2022 and 2021.
Individually this season, Lucy Searle was named SEC Rower of the Week while Giulia Orefice received SEC Co-Freshman of the Week honors on May 1. Other Longhorns recognized by the SEC office include Marg van der Wal (Rower of the Week), Nike Utesch (Freshman of the Week), Abby Dawson (Rower of the Week), and Leila Gaston (Freshman of the Week). Searle led Texas’s First Varsity Eight to an undefeated regular season highlighted by a victory over then-No. 1 Stanford on April 25.
As Texas prepares for Sunday’s championship races aiming to extend its streaks both within conference play and nationally recognized achievements remain central storylines.
