Completed Event: Rowing versus ACC Championships on May 15, 2026 , , 7th/69 points
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Final
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Duke Rowing Origins: Reed Kenny
5/22/2020 3:57:00 PM | Rowing
DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke Rowing Origins segment this week features Reed Kenny, an Alexandria, Va., native who recently concluded her junior year. Kenny was a 2019 CRCA Scholar-Athlete and a 2018 ACC Academic Honor Roll member.
In her two full seasons with the Blue Devils, Kenny has proven to be a valuable member in multiple boats, including the varsity-8, 2V8 and 2V4. In the varisty-8 lineup, Kenny helped Duke take silver at the 2019 ACC Championship with a time of 6:35.437. She went on to compete at the NCAA Championship two weeks later, where she helped the V8 squad place fifth in the C Final.
But despite the success in Durham that Kenny admits exceeded her own expectations, her start in rowing did not happen traditionally. Neither of her parents, Katy and Joseph, rowed, and there was no influence from an older sibling in the sport. Instead, her inclination to try it out came as a result of wanting to veer away from her predominant sport of swimming as well as instruction from an unlikely source.
"My German teacher in middle school had used to be a rowing coach at my high school, so she suggested that I should try it out because I was tall," she said. "I was kind of done with swimming at that point, so I decided to try it out. I fell in love with rowing pretty quickly."
Although she had to start a new sport from scratch with limited prior knowledge, Kenny was able to pick it up almost seamlessly. And as her passion for swimming began to shift to another water sport, it was the sense of comradery that really drew her to rowing early on.
"I really liked the team aspect of it," Kenny said. "Swimming felt like a pretty individual sport to me since we were just kind of by ourselves. With rowing, I liked the team aspect and being able to be in a boat with all of my best friends."
As she fully immersed herself in rowing, the results began to follow. Kenny helped her high school, T.C. Williams, claim the state title in the freshman eight category in 2014, and led the team to the Virginia state championships in the first eight as a sophomore and junior. Perhaps coincidentally, she was also the founder and president of the school's German Club. As she watched some of her older teammates garner the attention of collegiate programs and sign their national letters of intent, it became apparent to Kenny that there was a potential for rowing in her future as well.
"My sophomore year, I had thought about rowing in college as something I wanted to do, just because I had some older teammates who had signed to go row at a couple different universities, so it was kind of in the back of my mind," she said. "My junior year, my erg scores seemed like maybe it would be a possibility to row at a D-I university, which was really exciting to me. I went with that and just saw what my options were in regards to rowing."
Kenny says that she narrowed her prospective universities to those on the east coast, citing accessibility from northern Virginia. When Duke came across her radar, both the up-and-coming program and the academic opportunities got Kenny's attention.
"What stood out to me about Duke was the great mix of academics and athletics," she said. "Not only was I going to a D-I school with fantastic athletics across the board, but academically, Duke was really strong and had a lot of programs that I was interested in. I really liked that mix and that's what really drew me to the school."
Now three years into her experience as a Duke student-athlete, she maintains that both aspects have provided more than she could have ever asked for. Kenny calls being a Blue Devil a "unique experience," and has loved working with not only her coaches and professors, but the Duke athletics support staff as well. As a distinguished leader on the team, she feels that the strongest feature that Duke rowing has to offer is its familial nature and approach, which has translated to the success of the group over the past three seasons.
"The chemistry on our team is really unique in special in the fact that it's small enough that it really feels like a family, but we all love spending time together and really have gotten to know each other well," she said. "I think the team chemistry is also really supportive and a great environment that I love being in. My rowing career at Duke has been really exciting and fun, and I've definitely loved every minute of it."
Following the 2020 season's cancellation in mid-March, the team was forced to communicate primarily through video chats and group text messages. While the unfamiliar circumstance is less than ideal, Kenny feels that the 'New normal' has brought the group together even more, which she believes will bring unintended benefits when competition can resume.
"We have team Zoom's a lot and we also have training groups that we do workouts with. We have something on the team called 'Fam's,' that's a group of different years, and we still have our 'Fam' dinners and things like that. I've been able to keep in contact with a lot of people, which has been really fun and we try to keep a sense of normalcy during the whole situation.
"I think it will definitely make us stronger when we do get back together. It's really shown everyone not to take anything for granted and to really put everything into the opportunities that you're given because I think has really shown how fast it can be taken away. I think we'll go back into the season stronger, and I definitely think we're doing all the right things during this break to keep each other united and still working towards our goals."
#GoDuke
In her two full seasons with the Blue Devils, Kenny has proven to be a valuable member in multiple boats, including the varsity-8, 2V8 and 2V4. In the varisty-8 lineup, Kenny helped Duke take silver at the 2019 ACC Championship with a time of 6:35.437. She went on to compete at the NCAA Championship two weeks later, where she helped the V8 squad place fifth in the C Final.
But despite the success in Durham that Kenny admits exceeded her own expectations, her start in rowing did not happen traditionally. Neither of her parents, Katy and Joseph, rowed, and there was no influence from an older sibling in the sport. Instead, her inclination to try it out came as a result of wanting to veer away from her predominant sport of swimming as well as instruction from an unlikely source.
"My German teacher in middle school had used to be a rowing coach at my high school, so she suggested that I should try it out because I was tall," she said. "I was kind of done with swimming at that point, so I decided to try it out. I fell in love with rowing pretty quickly."
Although she had to start a new sport from scratch with limited prior knowledge, Kenny was able to pick it up almost seamlessly. And as her passion for swimming began to shift to another water sport, it was the sense of comradery that really drew her to rowing early on.
"I really liked the team aspect of it," Kenny said. "Swimming felt like a pretty individual sport to me since we were just kind of by ourselves. With rowing, I liked the team aspect and being able to be in a boat with all of my best friends."
As she fully immersed herself in rowing, the results began to follow. Kenny helped her high school, T.C. Williams, claim the state title in the freshman eight category in 2014, and led the team to the Virginia state championships in the first eight as a sophomore and junior. Perhaps coincidentally, she was also the founder and president of the school's German Club. As she watched some of her older teammates garner the attention of collegiate programs and sign their national letters of intent, it became apparent to Kenny that there was a potential for rowing in her future as well.
"My sophomore year, I had thought about rowing in college as something I wanted to do, just because I had some older teammates who had signed to go row at a couple different universities, so it was kind of in the back of my mind," she said. "My junior year, my erg scores seemed like maybe it would be a possibility to row at a D-I university, which was really exciting to me. I went with that and just saw what my options were in regards to rowing."
Kenny says that she narrowed her prospective universities to those on the east coast, citing accessibility from northern Virginia. When Duke came across her radar, both the up-and-coming program and the academic opportunities got Kenny's attention.
"What stood out to me about Duke was the great mix of academics and athletics," she said. "Not only was I going to a D-I school with fantastic athletics across the board, but academically, Duke was really strong and had a lot of programs that I was interested in. I really liked that mix and that's what really drew me to the school."
Now three years into her experience as a Duke student-athlete, she maintains that both aspects have provided more than she could have ever asked for. Kenny calls being a Blue Devil a "unique experience," and has loved working with not only her coaches and professors, but the Duke athletics support staff as well. As a distinguished leader on the team, she feels that the strongest feature that Duke rowing has to offer is its familial nature and approach, which has translated to the success of the group over the past three seasons.
"The chemistry on our team is really unique in special in the fact that it's small enough that it really feels like a family, but we all love spending time together and really have gotten to know each other well," she said. "I think the team chemistry is also really supportive and a great environment that I love being in. My rowing career at Duke has been really exciting and fun, and I've definitely loved every minute of it."
Following the 2020 season's cancellation in mid-March, the team was forced to communicate primarily through video chats and group text messages. While the unfamiliar circumstance is less than ideal, Kenny feels that the 'New normal' has brought the group together even more, which she believes will bring unintended benefits when competition can resume.
"We have team Zoom's a lot and we also have training groups that we do workouts with. We have something on the team called 'Fam's,' that's a group of different years, and we still have our 'Fam' dinners and things like that. I've been able to keep in contact with a lot of people, which has been really fun and we try to keep a sense of normalcy during the whole situation.
"I think it will definitely make us stronger when we do get back together. It's really shown everyone not to take anything for granted and to really put everything into the opportunities that you're given because I think has really shown how fast it can be taken away. I think we'll go back into the season stronger, and I definitely think we're doing all the right things during this break to keep each other united and still working towards our goals."
#GoDuke
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