Intercollegiate rowing programs at nine NCAA Division III institutions have formed the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC), which will sponsor a conference championship in both women's and men's rowing beginning in 2009. Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, Pa.), Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa.), Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.), Marietta College (Marietta, Ohio), the University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, Va.), North Park University (Chicago, Ill.), the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (Pomona, N.J.), Rutgers University-Camden (Camden, N.J.), and Washington College (Chestertown, Md.) are the founding members of the conference and will compete for the MARC Championship in women's rowing. Seven of the nine schools (all but Bryn Mawr and Marietta) will also compete for the MARC Championship in men's rowing.
The conference was formed, in part, to formalize the relationship between the rowing programs at the nine charter member schools, which, for the past two years, have held an annual regatta called the Mid-Atlantic Division III Rowing Championships at Gifford Pinchot State Park in northern York County, Pa. (That regatta was the descendant of an earlier regatta known as the Atlantic Collegiate League Sprints Championships.) The regatta will henceforth be known as the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Championships and the first-ever MARC Championships will be held on Saturday, April 25th, 2009, at Gifford Pinchot.
Competing in the MARC will afford rowers at the nine charter member schools the same opportunities already available to many of their peer student-athletes, including the potential of receiving All-Conference honors and the chance to compete for a Conference Championship.
"Organizing a conference - especially for the men's teams - is a great way to provide our student-athletes some much deserved recognition," remarked Mary Washington head men's and women's rowing coach Philip Schmehl. "I am certain that the student-athlete experience will be enhanced with its formation, which is a tremendous benefit." (Unlike with women's rowing, there is currently not an NCAA Division III Championship for men's rowing.)
The conference is currently developing a web presence at http://MARConline.org.
Please contact Phil Ticknor at [email protected] or 410-778-7238 for more information.