ITHACA, N.Y. – Liz Dennison, a five-year member of the Cornell women's rowing program, has been named Associate Head Coach. A member of the Big Red coaching staff since 2009, Dennison has been instrumental to the resurgence of the Cornell program, which has made back-to-back NCAA championship appearances and has placed fourth in team points for the past two seasons at the Ivy League Championship.

"This is a very well-deserved promotion for an outstanding coach," says Hilary Gehman, the Staley Head Coach of Women's Rowing. "Liz has done a tremendous job with our program and has flawlessly taken over head coaching duties during both of my maternity leaves. Both Cornell and the women's rowing program are lucky to have such a great coach and I am extremely thankful to have Liz on my staff."

The 2010-11 EAWRC Co-Assistant Coach of the Year, Dennison started her Cornell career with a bang, helping the Big Red to earn its first national ranking in six seasons and in the final poll of 2009-10 campaign, the Big Red placed 18th overall and narrowly missed out on a berth to the NCAA Championship. The next year, Cornell reached as high as No. 10 in the rankings and advanced all six of its boats into the Grand Finals of the Eastern Sprints for the second straight season and took a fourth-place team finish overall.

The past two seasons have proved to be some of the most successful in program history as the Big Red varsity eight took the silver medal in the inaugural Ivy League Championship and then advanced to the NCAA Championships for the first time in 10 years. The Big Red beat its seed and placed 13th overall, finishing one-point behind 12th place Radcliffe and six points in front of Brown. The next year, Cornell returned to the NCAA Championship and finished 15th overall at NCAAs, with the second varsity eight proving to be Cornell's top finisher on the day, winning the C Finals to take 13th place overall.