BOSTON – Twelve members of the Northeastern men's rowing team have been named Empacher-IRCA Scholar Athletes for their performance on the water and in the classroom during the 2025-26 season: Ned Botherway, Connor Burke, Krystof Janac, Jakub Kyncl, Julian Leonhardt, Brandon Mark, Aidan Murphy, Riley Putnam, Giovanni Santaniello, Logan Smith, Alex Stamas and Nick Walding.
 
To be eligible for scholar-athlete status, student-athletes, must be in their second season of eligibility or later, competed in their program's top three boats during the current season or raced at the 2026 IRA Championship, and hold a 3.50 cumulative GPA or better through fall semester.
 
The Huskies recently concluded a strong 2026 campaign in which Northeastern earned three cup victories over No. 11 Penn, No. 6 Brown and No. 12 Boston University before finishing third as a team at the Eastern Sprints.
 
There, Northeastern saw both its first and second varsity boats reach the A Final for the first time since 2019 before the first varsity earned the program's first medal in the event since 2015 with a bronze medal in a thrilling finish over Dartmouth. The second varsity, meanwhile, took fourth place for its best finish in the event in nearly a decade. 
 
The Huskies would go on to the IRA National Championship, where all four boats qualified for the B Final before Northeastern finished 11th as a team in the final Ten Eyck points standings.