Michigan Opens Fall Season This Weekend
9/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's rowing team kicks off its 2008 fall season with a series of controlled pieces against Michigan State and Eastern Michigan on Sunday, Sept. 21. Events at Belleville Lake in Belleville, Mich., will get underway at 10 a.m.
The teams will compete in a quintet of five-minute pieces. Stroke ratings will be set at 26 strokes per minute for all five workouts.
On the U-M roster, the coxswain plus seven of the eight rowers who helped the U-M first varsity eight place 11th nationally at the 2008 NCAA Championships return. The group includes seniors Karen Colwell(Pawcatuck, Conn./Stonington), Laura Dunn(Andover, Mass./Pomfret School, Conn.), Julia Nelson(St. Catharines, Ontario/St. Francis Secondary School) and Cate Trumble(Dalkeith, Western Australia/Presbyterian Ladies' College) and juniors Sarah Gribler(Marysville, Wash./Marysville-Pilchuck), Ashley Kroll(Edmonds, Wash./Kamiak) and Adrienne Mecham(Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens).
Head coach Mark Rothstein is in his 13th year guiding the Michigan rowing team. Rothstein, the only head coach in the program's history, has led the Maize and Blue to the NCAA Championships eight times. Rothstein hired Kate Strum as an assistant coach in July. Prior to Michigan, Strum spent three years at Bucknell University. Four-year U-M letterwinner Annie Hildebrand (2005-08) remains a part of the U-M rowing program as a graduate assistant coach in 2008-09 and Heather Mandoli, who rowed at U-M from 2001-04, and Karen Smyte, who coached at U-M from 1999-2004, join Hildebrand on the staff as volunteer coaches for the Wolverines this year.
Following this Sunday's competition, the Wolverines will next head to Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Oct. 4, to compete with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Contact: Matt Trevor (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
