U-M Awarded Five All-Americans, 10 Scholar-Athletes and Regional Coach of the Year

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After winning the program's sixth Big Ten Championship and placing third at the NCAA Championships this spring, the University of Michigan rowing team was among the most decorated programs in the country when the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) announced its annual awards on Thursday (June 27).

In a new format, the CRCA announced its Scholar-Athletes, All-Americans and Regional Coaches of the Year simultaneously. Michigan boasts 10 academic honorees and a trio of first team All-Americans in Caroline Hendershot, Victoria Glunt and coxswain Charlotte Powers to go along with two second team All-Americans, Madison Byrd and Kathryn Grotto. Head coach Mark Rothstein was named Region 4 Coach of the Year.

Michigan's All-Americans are first-time honorees, and all four rowers earned All-Big Ten honors on their way to this national recognition. All five Wolverines were part of the 1V8 boat which won a bronze medal at the NCAA Championships this spring, as it outperformed its No. 6 seed after it won Big Ten gold in May. Together, they helped U-M win the Big Ten team race and set program scoring records at both postseason regattas.

With contributions from Hendershot, Glunt, Grotto and Byrd, and guidance from Powers, the 1V8 had a stellar spring. It was the backbone of Michigan's seven-week stretch of being ranked in the top-five nationally and a season-long ranking in the top-10. In addition to handling the Big Ten's best crews in the conference's best-ever season (six programs competed at the national regatta), the 1V8 boat has wins over ACC foes Virginia, Duke and Syracuse, and Ivy League Powers Harvard-Radcliffe and Yale. All five athletes were part of the Big Ten Boat of the Week (April 2) after sweeping those Ivy League crews on Belleville Lake (March 30).

A native of Stimsbury, Connecticut, Hendershot has been a valuable contributor to the program for four years. She moved up to the seven seat of the 1V8 for the Big Ten Championships, where she was named first-team all-conference and Athlete of the Year. Hendershot is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and earned her degree in communications and plans to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.

Glunt is a native of Concord, Ohio, and a former walk-on turned steady contributor for the U-M program. She mostly contributed from the four and five seats this spring and earned first-team all-conference honors. Glunt also is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree in addition to being a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar (2017), and now boats two CRCA Scholar-Athlete honors (2018-19). Glunt has earned a degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering.

Grotto hails from Weston, Connecticut, and stepped up with a big senior season for the Maize and Blue. She was a staple in the two seat for the 1V8 all spring and remained there during the championship season. Grotto is yet another three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, and she has earned her degree in psychology.

A Fort Wayne, Indiana, native, Byrd is the only non-senior rower to find her way onto Michigan's list of honorees. Like Glunt, she joined the program as a novice during her freshman year at U-M and quickly ascended to the varsity lineup. She rowed in seats three through six throughout the spring, but stuck in the sixth seat during the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. Off the water, she is studying English.

Powers is a native of Fairfield, Connecticut, and after splitting duties between coxing the first and second varsity eight boats in 2017-18, she exclusively controlled the 1V8 this spring. She helped push her teammates to one of the most successful seasons in program history, and will be back to lead U-M's top boat again next season.

Rothstein, who was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the sixth time in May, has led U-M to win or place runner-up in 15 of 20 Big Ten Championship events. Michigan has earned a top-10 ranking in the preseason in four of the last five years and was ranked in the top 10 all year long in 2019.

At the conference championships, Michigan medaled in all seven events, with four gold medals (1V8, 2V8, 2V4, and 1N8) and two silver medals (1V4, 2V4). The four event wins marked a program-best, eclipsing the three boat victories that U-M had recorded in previous championships. Michigan's 186 points scored at were a program-best and mark the second-highest point total by any team in conference history.

U-M's 10 scholar-athlete honorees are: Paige Badenhorst (organizational studies), Perry Bower (biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience), Kate Burns (industrial and operations engineering), Fleur De Jong (biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience), Victoria Glunt (industrial and operations engineering), Meghan Gutknecht (environment), Annika Hoffmann (comparative literature, political science), Catherine Olson (information), Madeleine Schneider (comparative literature, international studies), Erika Yasuda (movement science).

To earn CRCA Scholar-Athlete distinction a student must be in her second, third or fourth year of eligibility, have a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average or higher for her career and compete in a minimum of 75 percent of the current spring races.

For Bower, Glunt, and Yasuda, it marked their second consecutive scholar-athlete honor.