The University of Charleston will discontinue its rowing program after the 2017 season.
The decision came, according to UC athletic director Bren Stevens, after having a difficult time the last few years building a roster and facing the challenges that come with a small field of programs at the Division II level.
"It was a tough decision, but we had really been struggling in the last few years to get enough female rowers," Stevens said. "It got tough from that standpoint and from a travel standpoint. It added a lot of expenses and missed class time."
Including UC, there are 16 women's rowing programs in NCAA Division II. There are only five other schools in the East region along with the Golden Eagles, with Mercyhurst being the closest geographically despite being nearly 350 miles from Charleston.
The last home meet hosted by the Golden Eagles was in 2014.
"We haven't been able to get any teams to come to Charleston so we can row at home for a long time," Stevens said. "It's hard to justify putting money into a program that we never even get to watch row at any time.
"We've been looking at this for the last three or four years, trying to determine how we can get some more home meets and how we could entice teams to want to come and row here."
Stevens said that no other programs at UC are in danger of being discontinued.
"We aren't evaluating any of our other programs for this. I feel like our roster sizes and other factors in the other programs are all very strong," Stevens said.