Fehr commits to Monmouth
Ashlyn Fehr has made a meteoric rise in the sport of rowing.
The Grade 12 student at Saint Michael joined a learn to row program in the summer before starting Grade 10 and recently committed with NCAA Division 1 Monmouth on a rowing scholarship.
The 17-year-old was a competitive figure skater from the age of four and also a synchronized skater, winning a bronze medal at nationals in the latter with Burlington Nexxice in 2022, before trying rowing.
“I didn’t continue with it because I was still focused on skating but I loved it so much that I went back in the winter and I have kept going with it ever since. I ended up giving up skating to pursue rowing.”
Fehr’s results in 2023 validate that choice.
Her season started in the spring with a bronze medal at the Stotesbury Cup in the women’s junior double followed by silver medals in the lightweight single and double at the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association championships. In the summer, she was a member of a Niagara Falls Rowing Club quad that won gold at the RowOntario championships and this fall, competing in the women’s high school single, she was first at the Head of the Schuykill in Philadelphia and fourth at the Head of the Charles in Boston.
“It was a surreal year of competing for me and the club actually,” said the 17-year-old, who was Saint Michael’s rowing MVP and the school’s Grade 11 female athlete of the year.
She started to realize a rowing scholarship was a possibility in 2022.
“This time last year I was content with rowing how I was because I was having a lot of fun. It wasn’t until right after the Head of Charles last year that I got a message from a school asking me to fill out a recruitment form.
“That’s when I started to think maybe it could be something that I would be interested in. After talking to a few schools, I started to get that feeling of excitement and it was like, ‘This is it. I want to go on with this.’ ”
Fehr ended up making official visits Monmouth, Sacred Heart in Connecticut and Jacksonville University in Florida before ultimately choosing Monmouth in West Long Branch, N.J.
“It was definitely my official visit. It really sold me because the campus and area was absolutely beautiful, the team was so incredibly welcoming and you could tell the coaches really cared about everyone on the team,” she said. “It was somewhere I could see myself being happy especially if I was going to be going so far away from home. It had to feel like home and this is it.”
The Monmouth rowing program was launched in 2022.
“As a new program, it is not for everyone but I see the potential in it and how everybody wants it to be something big and I want to be a part of that,” the future business major said.
She is excited to get started on the adventure.
“Monmouth is somewhere where I will not only be able to further my rowing but I will also get a great education. It is a great school, they’re encouraging and they will be supporting me through everything. I can’t wait.”
She has not targeted any Monmouth boat that she wants to make but plans to work hard and see where it gets her. That works has already began as she is in the midst of winter training.
“It’s complex and a lot of hard work but it’s going to be worth it. This fall especially, I really had to step up my training with Head of the Charles. It is a lot of extra practices but it is stuff that I know will pay off.”
Fehr will be missed at Saint Michael.
“As Saint Michael had a very small rowing program last season consisting of only four rowers, it took a great deal of initiative and passion to achieve such great accomplishments,” Saint Michael coach John Bonadie said. “Ashlyn worked well with her crew coach, Wernher Verbraeken. Clearly Ashlyn has blazed a trail for future Mustang rowers and we are looking forward to following her achievements at Monmouth University.”
Fehr has big goals for her final year as a Saint Michael rower.
“The plan it to go to Stotes (Stotesbury Cup), SRA (Scholastic Rowing Association of America) and the CSSRA and I am hoping to excel in the single. I will be happy with a good race but those medals are always something to fight for.”
Rowing is a big part of her life.
“It’s a constant challenge and countless painful practices. There is something about it that keep me going back and makes me want to get better.”
