UCF’s Hannah Lovejoy (Rower of the Year), Lucy Buckingham (Newcomer of the Year) and Mara Allen (Coach of the Year) highlighted the 2025 Big 12 Rowing Awards after the Knights earned the program’s first Big 12 Championship and a bid to the NCAA Championships. Laura Teska (Kansas) and Sydnee Blackburn (Old Dominion) were voted as Co-Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Lovejoy helped the UCF 1V8+ win its race at the Big 12 Championship by 16 seconds, rowing from the bow position. She was a part of two crews that captured Big 12 Boat of the Week honors, plus received the team’s Charging Knight award, which is awarded to the team’s highest contributor each season. She is the first UCF rower to win the Conference’s top individual honor.
Buckingham was in the four seat of the Knights’ 1V8+ that captured a pair of Boat of the Week honors and won the title-clinching race at the Big 12 Championship. The freshman only began rowing in her senior year of high school, before coming to UCF and earning a spot in the varsity eight. She is the first Knight to capture Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors.
In just her second season at the helm of the program, Allen led the UCF program to a sweep of all six races at the Big 12 Championship. The Knights clinched its first bid to the NCAA Championship since 2019, which takes May 30-June 1 in West Windsor, N.J.
Teska earns her second consecutive Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor while maintaining a 3.99 GPA in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. She was a part of the KU 1V8+ that won Big 12 Boat of the Week honors after defeating K-State in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown. This marks the third time a Jayhawk has earned Rowing Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
Blackburn finished her degree in nursing with a 3.9 GPA while being voted a team captain on the Monarch’s team. Rowing from the three seat on ODU’s varsity eight, she has found time to volunteer hundreds of hours at a local hospital, and will begin her career working in a pediatric neonatal ICU. She is the first Old Dominion athlete to win a Big 12 yearly award.
Big 12 Rower of the Year: Hannah Lovejoy, UCF
Big 12 Newcomer of the Year: Lucy Buckingham, UCF
Big 12 Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Laura Teska, Kansas
Big 12 Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Sydnee Blackburn
Big 12 Coach of the Year: Mara Allen, UCF