DUISBURG, Germany – Northeastern men's rowing rising junior Luke Hickling, representing New Zealand at the 2026 U23 World Rowing Championships, helped the men's eight to the bronze medal on the final day of racing last weekend.
 
Hickling, rowing in the bow seat, and New Zealand earned a spot in the A Final thanks to an impressive performance in the heats earlier in the week, finishing second (5:51.26) behind only Great Britain (5:48.54).
 
The start of the under 23 men's eight was slightly delayed when the British boat came out of its starting shoe, but that did not seem to bother the crews who treated the fans to a spectacular race. Great Britain, chasing a record seventh title in a row, led by a canvas at 500m but could not break free of the pack, which was led by the United States and Australia. Things stayed that way through the middle 1000m, with the British inching slowly ahead but by tenths of a second. In the last 500m the USA kept the pressure on the British (5:31.94) eight while New Zealand (5:34.09) found some impressive closing speed to move past Australia for bronze while the United States (5:32.98) held on for silver.
 
A native of Christchurch, New Zealand, Hickling is coming off a sophomore season in which he rowed in the bow seat of the first varsity for the duration of the year. The Northeastern 1V earned cup victories over No. 11 Penn, No. 6 Brown and No. 12 Boston University during the regular season before collecting the Huskies' first medal in the first varsity since 2015 with a bronze at the Eastern Sprints. Northeastern would go on to finish ninth in the nation at the IRA Championships.
 
Hickling earned a spot on the team after his performance at trials at Lake Karāpiro in New Zealand earlier this summer.

This marked for the fourth straight year that Northeastern has a representative on New Zealand's U23 team. Co-captain Ed Lopas was a three-year team member in 2023, 2024 and 2025 while Kobe Miller also made the squad in 2023.