Season Preview: 2022 Michigan Rowing
2/24/2022 9:00:00 AM | Rowing
» Michigan enters its 26th season of varsity competition under the leadership of head coach Mark Rothstein and its 31st season overall.
» Under Rothstein's direction, U-M has been first or second in the Big Ten in 16 of 20 seasons, including consecutive Big Ten Championships in 2019 and 2021.
» U-M will host three events this spring, with Indiana coming to Belleville in March, Texas making its second trip to Ann Arbor in April, and Louisville visiting on Senior Day to close out the regular season in May.
Wolverine Bites
• The Wolverines have been working hard in preparation for the 2022 season in order to continue a successful program streak. U-M is coming off consecutive conference titles for the third time in program history (2000-01, 2003-04, 2019-21; 2020 not contested).
• U-M appeared in three grand final events for the second straight NCAA Championships in 2021 after placing top-four in all three NCAA events in 2019. Five athletes (Kate Burns, Grace Collins, Emma Luniewicz, Jeri Rhodes, and coxswain Charlotte Powers) were part of both those rosters and return to the 2022 team.
• The program has placed in the top four nationally three times in the last four NCAA Championship events -- a level of success matched only during the 2001-04 stretch.
• The Maize and Blue checked in at No. 4 in the preseason edition of the Pocock CRCA Poll, marking the program's fourth consecutive top-five preseason ranking.
• During the fall season, the Wolverine novice and varsity rosters kept busy with varsity and novice non-scoring events against local schools Eastern Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State.
• Select student-athletes will be in Tennessee over the Spring Break period as part of the team's spring training trip, where they'll see their first competitive action of the season.
Breaking Down the Roster
• The Wolverines return 16 of 23 student-athletes from the 2021 NCAA Championships roster which led the team to a fourth-place finish, including Pocock All-American Charlotte Powers (second team) and All-Big Ten performer Grace Collins (second team).
• Michigan's seniors number 19 with 13 fourth-year athletes: Madelyn Ball, Hadley Camp, Victoria Cooke, Kayla Ehrlich (cox), Haven Essien, Caroline McGee, Lillian Mei, Kaitlin Nemeh (cox), Samantha Perlman (cox), Jeri Rhodes, Jessica Schoonbee, Lauren Sickmiller, Kathryn Ward and six fifth-year and graduate student-athletes: Kate Burns, Grace Collins, Emma Luniewicz, Charlotte Powers (cox), Cecilia Spesia, and Noa Sreden.
• The Wolverines return half their 1V8 boat, which placed fourth at the NCAA Championships last spring: Kate Burns, Grace Collins, Ariana Shokoohi, and coxswain Charlotte Powers.
• U-M returns 31 of 51 athletes from the 2021 Big Ten Championship team, including 22 from the five varsity boats (six, 1V8; four, 2V8; one, 1V4; four, 2V4; three, 3V4). The team is seeking its third straight conference title, which would be the longest streak of consecutive Big Ten Championships in program history.
• The roster includes just four true freshmen: Americans Gabrielle Graves and Gracie Landefeld are joined by Katie Easton from Australia and Carla Russell from England.
• This is a group that is just as impressive in the classroom as they are on the water. Last year, U-M boasted 49 Academic All-Big Ten honorees, an improvement from 44 the year before. The program has a three-year total of 126 honorees since 2019.
• Student-athletes were not the only ones to collect awards the last time the Wolverines were competing: head coach Mark Rothstein was named the 2021 Big Ten Coach of the Year, the sixth conference honor of his career and the second in a row.
2022 Spring Schedule
• U-M has seven competition weekends to prepare for this spring, including three home weekends. It gives the two-time defending Big Ten Champions a competitive slate to progress through in pursuit of a third consecutive conference title.
• The 2022 schedule begins in Caryville, Tennessee, bringing the Wolverines to the Volunteer State for the spring opener for the fourth season in a row. The Louisville Cardinal (Monday) and the Tennessee Lady Volunteers (Saturday) will both be racing against U-M at different points in the week.
• One-day home events against Indiana (to close out March) and Texas (mid-April) bookend the Wolverines' trip to Columbus, Ohio, on the first weekend April for the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. There, Michigan expects to race strong challengers Virginia and Duke with Ohio State hosting. The home matchup against Texas promises top-ranked action.
• The Big Ten Invitational will take U-M to Florida at the site of the NCAA Championships before the team closes the regular season with Louisville in a final race at Belleville Lake for U-M's senior day celebration.
• The Big Ten Championships (May 15) are in Indianapolis, Indiana, again this season -- the 10th time in 11 championships since 2010. Eagle Creek Park has also hosted several NCAA Championship events, with the most recent being in 2019.
Players Mentioned
