Exeter students to row in the 2024 Boat Races
This year’s Boat Races on the 30th of March hold special significance for Exeter College, as three talented Exonians form part of the crews entered into the event. Jelmer Bennema (2023, MSc in Mathematical and Computational Finance), Ella Stadler (2019, History; 2022, MPhil History of Science, Medicine, and Technology), and Maria Nielson-Scott (2018, Medicine) will represent Oxford in the men’s, women’s, and reserve boats respectively.
The 78th women’s race takes place at 14.46, where Ella Stadler will compete in seat 2. As well as having raced in the 2023 event, Stadler is the president of the OUWBC (Oxford University Women’s Boat Club). She initially discovered rowing as an undergraduate at Exeter, taking part in the ECBC (Exeter College Boat Club) taster session, at which point she was hooked. For Stadler, winning the race would be the perfect culmination of her time at Exeter: she states it would be ‘the best way to end my five years here’.
In the men’s race, which starts at 15.46, Exeter is represented in seat 3 by Jelmer Bennema, who began rowing at a young age in an ‘inflatable boat’, until he was encouraged to join ‘an actual rowing club’. Since, he has achieved many rowing titles, including winning silver at Eastern Sprints (2023) in the Princeton 2V.
Exeter’s presence at the boat races is topped off by Nielson-Scott’s return to the reserve boat, of which she formed part of the crew in 2023. Remarkably, Maria will race against her sister, Helen, who will be representing Cambridge in their reserve boat.
Exeter is also represented in the University squad by Harriet Cooper (2021, Engineering Science) and Victoria Fletcher (2021, English). Fletcher is also the president of the OULWRC (Oxford University Lightweight Women’s Rowing Club).
There are still limited tickets left to join ECBC on the 30th of March at the Blue Anchor, Hammersmith, to support Stadler, Bennema, and Nielson-Scott at The Boat Races Function. As ECBC reaches its bicentenary year, this year’s function promises to be an exciting one, and whatever the outcome of the races, the Exonian participation is testament to the talent and dedication of Exeter’s student athletes.
From left to right: Jelmer Bennema, Ella Stadler, Victoria Fletcher, Harriet Cooper, and Maria Nielson-Scott
