Harty Finds Her Path on the Water

At 5:15 a.m. the world is silent, slow, unmoving. Carter Lake is placid, the surface of the water untouched by the approaching bustle of the day. While the rest of Omaha is sleeping, Creighton senior rower Paige Harty is not. For Harty, the quiet is where her day begins.

It begins before the sun rises, the time when the melodic sound of her and her teammates' laughter breaks through the last of the morning chill and the rowing shells trace ripples across the still water. In these moments, the foundation of Creighton rowing is built by friendship, trust and support.

But these mornings weren't always part of her routine. Harty's path to becoming a rower began long before she was born — with her mom, Anne Harty.

In 1993, Anne attended Creighton alongside her high school friend Lisa, who would later marry Dan Chipps, Creighton rowing head coach. This connection first introduced the Harty family to the program.

"[Dan and Lisa] were rowing in college and they always wanted my mom to join. She never wanted to do it because she didn't want to get up early in the morning," recalled Harty.

Anne may have resisted joining them on the water while in college, but Dan Chipps's recruiting efforts didn't end there, returning when Anne and Patrick Harty settled in Sacramento, Calif. and had their twin daughters.

"Dan was trying to recruit my sister and I from the NICU, so [rowing] has been on my radar since before I was born," said Harty.

For years, Harty and her twin sister, Cate, weren't sold on Chipps's encouragement to try rowing, echoing the same resistance their mom once had.

While Cate never changed her mind, eighth grade marked the first time where Chipps's urging seemed to reach Harty. She attended a rowing camp that year and began to consider the sport like never before.

Still, without a rowing program at her high school, there was no clear next step. Instead, Harty turned her attention to something she could join immediately: cross country and track. More than anything, the California native wanted community, with teammates to train with and friends to grow alongside.

But when COVID-19 shut down practices in 2020, that community shifted. Team workouts were replaced by daily solo runs on the streets of Harty's Sacramento neighborhood.

While Harty might not have been rowing, her commitment to running caught Chipps and the Creighton rowing staff's attention.

"I ended up doing all right in cross country and track. I wasn't ever super fast, but I was really dedicated and so Dan [Chipps] was like, 'Oh, that looks like a good rower to me,'" said Harty.

For most of her life, rowing had been background noise, something mentioned and not truly pursued. Now, with the possibility tangible and real with Creighton, Harty hesitated. But a visit to Omaha her senior year of high school shifted that uncertainty. It wasn't the sport itself that convinced her — it was the people.

"I came and visited Creighton [and] originally, I was like, 'I don't know if I want to do this,' but once I visited the [rowing] team, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I love this,'" reminisced Harty. "That's pretty much when I decided that I wanted to go to Creighton … because I loved visiting the team and everyone was super nice and supportive."

That supportive environment extended farther than Harty could have imagined in the months that followed her commitment to Creighton. After joining the Bluejay program, the California native was prepared to move 1,500 miles from home, embraced by her new family at Creighton and under the wing of family friends Dan and Lisa Chipps.

Yet, in an unexpected turn, the relocation to Omaha became a family one. After Anne accepted a nursing professor position at Creighton, both of Harty's parents arrived in Omaha the same fall their daughter did. Even Cate eventually transferred to Creighton, though not in Harty's first year.

While the transition to campus life may have been easier with her parents a short distance away, the shift to rowing proved less seamless. Harty's history with cross country and track gave her a foundation of discipline and focus, she said, but it didn't erase the reality that she was still new to the sport.

"Rowing and cross country are really similar in being able to push yourself, but I would say it definitely didn't prepare me for the team aspect of rowing," noted Harty. "When I was first learning how to row, it was just a really slow process … [and] it was really frustrating to begin with … but after everybody learned, then we get going [and] it's so much more fun. It's so much easier for me to push myself when I know that somebody's depending on me to do it."

The trust and support that Harty was beginning to build on the water — the same one she fell in love with on her recruitment visit — took shape in the team's collective adjustment to the sport.

"What is really cool about Creighton rowing is that, I would say, probably 90 percent of the girls on the team have never rowed before, so I wasn't special in that aspect," said Harty. "It was just great to have my friends with me learning as well."

Under the guidance of head coach Chipps, whose positivity and support set the tone for the team, that shared learning also taught Harty quickly that the culture of friendships and trust fostered early on was a crucial part of what made the team successful.

"Some people have explained rowing as you having to have a perfect golf swing all at the same time in perfect unison, and it's really hard because there's different styles of rowing and different personalities that go into the boat and you all have to set that aside to work together," explained Harty. "If you don't trust each other, then you're not going to want to work as hard as you possibly can and push through."

Those early lessons in trust would come to shape everything that came next for Harty at Creighton.

In 2023, during Harty's sophomore year, a rib injury prevented the California native from competing for half the year. Forced to ride the stationary bike in place of practicing with her teammates, Harty was tested physically and mentally.

"I was biking for six months and I really didn't enjoy that at all. I just kept doing it and eventually ended up enjoying biking and I was like, 'Okay, I can do this,'" Harty remembered thinking. "[Then, when] I got back … I PR'd."

At the time, the sophomore year personal record after injury felt like proof Harty had done everything right. But as her second year ended and third year began, Harty's expectation to return from her rib injury better than before and push herself to the next milestone started to weigh heavier than any accomplishment.

"I just really got in my own head," said Harty of her relationship with rowing her junior year. "I was really focused on PR'ing and doing well, and I didn't end up PR'ing my junior year … I was just burnt out and I didn't enjoy it."

It was the lowest moment of Harty's Creighton career, the year when the sport that had brought her so many highs left her feeling defeated. But just as it was the people that led Harty to choose Creighton and rowing three years ago, it was those same people that eventually led her back to the water.

"After taking some time away and just reflecting, and coming back to the team and realizing that my teammates are there for me, this year [senior year] I've been able to get back and believe in myself. One of the highlights [this year] was I was able to PR in my 5K and in my 2K."

Harty's final year in the white and blue has not been defined by PRs but a new role on the team as one of the captains. The support she once received from her teammates now fuels her own efforts to keep the culture thriving.

"I really enjoy leading and I enjoy that I get to mentor the younger rowers and be there as their support too," said the senior. "Even as a freshman, I was like, 'I want to be a captain.' I just like leading, but I'm not the type of person that tells somebody what to do unless somebody directly asks me. I'm more of a show with example and so I think people have hopefully seen that."

For Harty, this leadership isn't separate from the team culture. It's shaped by it.

"[Creighton rowing] is a team of all my best friends and we all have a common goal together to work as hard as we possibly can," said Harty. "We all put in the work but we also all have our own lives too, which is really inspiring to see. One of my two really good friends last year is getting her PhD in biochemistry and the other one's a nurse in the army. Creighton rowing is just a really cool program."

The rowing team's culture of ambition and support also guided Harty more than just on the water. Bouncing between being on the pre-medical and pre-dental tracks over four years as a Bluejay, it was exercise science that ultimately caught Harty's attention, a career path directly influenced by rowing.

"Rowing has helped me find what I want to do with my life," said the senior. "I can just apply everything in rowing. When I did get my rib injury, it [came] from a lack of knowledge on the female anatomy and how over-training can hurt women rowing. I want to be the person that I didn't have [to teach me those things]."

With her final season as a part of Creighton rowing approaching, Harty's experience has been defined by more than just PRs, regattas and meets. It's about family dinners with the Chipps and her own parents — who are still close today—, mornings on the water with her best friends, and bonds that last a lifetime.

Once a sport that she laughed off, Creighton rowing has helped Harty discover her discipline, her passion and her place in the community.

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