Season Preview: 2018 Michigan Rowing

» U-M will play host for two events this spring: April 7 against Indiana and Iowa in a Big Ten Dual and April 29 against Louisville, which will be Senior Day for the Wolverines.
» Michigan will be captained by seniors Kendall Brewer and Rae Oleshansky, along with junior Meghan Gutknecht and sophomore Tayla-May Bentley this spring.

The University of Michigan rowing team enters its 22nd season of varsity competition under the leadership of head coach Mark Rothstein, and its 27th overall. Under Rothstein's direction, U-M has been first or second in the Big Ten in 13 of 18 seasons, including a runner-up finish last spring.

Wolverine Bites

• The Maize and Blue hopes to build on a third-place NCAA finish and second-place Big Ten finish from 2017. It was tied for the second-best finish in team history, and the best since the Wolverines were national runners-up in 2012.

• This year's roster will have four captains: seniors Kendall Brewer and Rae Oleshansky, junior Meghan Gutknecht and sophomore Tayla-May Bentley.

• Among the differences for the Wolverines this season will be a new home on campus: the South Campus Performance Complex now houses over two-thirds of Michigan student-athletes, including the rowing program, and contains space for nine teams overall in the 280,000-square-foot facility, which also holds Michigan's first indoor rowing tank.

• The setup is complete with an expanded erg room, team meeting rooms, private locker rooms, coaches' and administrative offices, nutritional spaces, athletic training and rehabilitation centers, and over 23,000 square feet of strength and conditioning space.

• New to the coaching staff for the 2018 season are graduate assistant Dan Harrison and volunteer assistant coach Lexie Beemer. Harrison was hired in August, 2017 after assisting the Oregon State, Boston University, and Ohio State programs. A member of three Big Ten Title-winning boats while a Wolverine herself, Beemer will join Krystina Sarff to coach the novices.

• During the fall season, the U-M varsity competed three times, including a trip to the 53rd annual Head of the Charles, where the first varsity eight boat placed eighth overall. It marked the seventh time in the last eight trips to Boston where at least one U-M boat earned a top-11 finish.

• Also from this fall: through the generosity of alumni Tracy Wolfson and David Reichel, junior Caroline Hendershot was chosen to spend a weekend preparing for and executing an NFL broadcast with the Emmy-nominated Wolfson on CBS. Read more about Hendershot's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Breaking Down the Roster

• U-M will return 14 student-athletes from its 2017 NCAA Championships roster, including Pocock All-Americans Kendall Brewer (2016 second team; 2017 first team) and Kalia Krichko (2017 first team).

• Michigan's seniors this year number nine: Brewer, Flick Cain, Mollie Fox, Alexis Jones, Krichko, Rae Oleshansky, Kathleen Peng, Abby Vare and Haley Zapolski. Seven of those nine student-athletes have NCAA Championships experience, including five from last year's NCAA third-place finishing team.

• U-M also returns 20 athletes from last year's Big Ten Championships roster, including five rowers from each of the 1V8 and 2V8 boats.

• The roster contains 16 true freshmen in total, with a large number of newcomers also represented in the varsity program. Look out for rookies Annika Hoffmann and Kate Burns, among others.

• Kendall Brewer and Meghan Gutknecht had opportunities to represent the United States in international competition last summer, rowing at the Under-23 World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Brewer earned a bronze medal (pairs) and Gutknecht helped her boat finish sixth (quad sculls).

They Said It

Head Coach Mark Rothstein
On the progression of this year's team from winter training to now: "We are really excited to race, that is for sure. Rowing is a sport where you train a lot of mileage for just seven or eight race weekends. We are excited to go down to the Cardinal Invite and see some really fast teams and see where we stack up."

On some of the early benefits he's observed from being in the new South Campus Performance Center: "The most obvious benefit is having a tank, which is one of several ways this building has enabled us to access more ways of training. Having a home for our student-athletes and having the convenience of everything in one building has made everything more efficient so that we've been able to get more work done."

Senior Captain Kendall Brewer
On the building excitement for the 2018 season: "It was really nice to get out on the water in Oak Ridge last week, and I'm excited to do the same here in Ann Arbor - to bring our winter training out on the water and see where we are at. We've only been indoors and haven't done a lot on the water, so it's a good reminder of how soon we'll be racing."

On the difference from last year's preparation to this, from leadership to a new facility: "This year has been different from last year partly because we have a young team with a lot of freshmen. The underclassmen have really been pushing and helping to lead the charge, and it's great to see. It is exciting to have different ideas and fresh energy, and a new group racing together this spring. And the South Campus Performance Center has allowed us to work out together (varsity and novice programs), which has been huge. Everything is one place -- the training room, the erg room, the locker room -- and that helps maximize our potential because there is no time wasted.

2018 Schedule

• The Wolverines will begin 2018 spring competition with a weekend of races at the University of Louisville's Cardinal Invitational on Saturday, March 17, at 9 a.m. and continuing on Sunday. This will be the third year in a row that U-M begins its season in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

• This will mark the eighth year of the Big Ten Championships (May 13) being held in Indianapolis, Indiana. That city has a consecutive host streak dating back to the spring of 2010.

• Michigan will have the opportunity to host Indiana and Iowa on Belleville Lake in the Big Ten Double Dual on Saturday, April 7.

• The Wolverines' Senior Day will take place on Sunday, April 29, against Louisville.

• The Wolverines will also take trips to Princeton, New Jersey (March 24), Columbus, Ohio (March 31) and Las Vegas, Nevada (April 14), during the regular season.

• The NCAA Championships will take U-M to Sarasota, Florida, this spring (May 25-27). Sarasota played host for the World Championships last summer, where alumnae Ellen Tomek and current graduate assistant Felice Mueller competed for Team USA.