Season Preview: 2023 Women's Rowing
3/21/2023 1:53:00 PM | Rowing, Features
The University of Michigan rowing program enters its 32nd season (27th varsity) led by head coach Mark Rothstein with its sights set atop the Big Ten. Under Rothstein, who named longtime assistant Liz Tuppen as associate head coach last summer, the Wolverines have been first or second in the conference in 17 of 21 seasons.
Wolverine Bites
• The program is seeking its third conference title in four seasons following consecutive titles in 2019 and '21 (2020 not contested).
• Michigan has placed top-10 nationally in eight straight seasons, including top-five finishes in three of the last five years.
• U-M awaits the first edition of the Pocock CRCA Poll. U-M has been ranked as a preseason top-five team for three years running.
• The Maize and Blue has a new-look staff this spring after longtime assistant coach Liz Tuppen was promoted to associate head coach last summer. Last year's graduate assistant Lauren Schmetterling is now a full-time coach working with the novice program, and former Oklahoma Sooner Maegan Neihart has joined as graduate assistant.
• Select student-athletes spent time in Tennessee over the spring break period as part of the team's spring training trip, where they saw their first action of the season against Louisville in a competitive workout.
• Canadians Abigail Dent, Leah Miller and Jana Peachey competed together last summer as part of Team Canada at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships. Dent and Peachey rowed in the 8+ and Miller rowed in the 4x. American Gabrielle Graves competed for Team U.S.A.
• Two prestigious honors were awarded to Wolverines in the fall, one former and one present. Michigan great Ellen Tomek was inducted into the U-M Athletics Hall of Honor as part of its Class of 2022, and first-year Wolverine Leah Miller was selected as the 2022 female recipient of the prestigious Tom Longboat Award.
Roster Breakdown
• Fourteen Wolverines remain from the team's 2021 Big Ten Championship roster: Ariana Shokoohi (1V8), Zara Collisson, Abigail Dent, Alexandra Gabel (2V8), Ainslie Evans, Sarah McKay, Kathryn Ward (1V4), Annaka Draaisma, Delaney Evans (2V4), Aubrey Fitts (3V4), Julia Casey, Brooke Gietzen (1N8), Lauren Langley, and Olivia McMullen (2N8).
• An additional 14 Wolverines helped the team to a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships last season, meaning 28 total athletes enter the 2023 season with postseason experience. That list of 2022 contributors includes: Katie Easton, Gabrielle Graves (1V8), Carla Russell (2V8), Gracie Landefeld, Rocky Morabito (3V4), Sophie McSpedon, Erin Benitez, Anna Muench, Emily Nelson, Lauren Boydston, Abby Hathaway, Megan Kleiner (1N8), Alana Maffesoli and Lauren Lier (2N8).
• U-M missed out on the Grand Final in all three NCAA events last year, ending a two-year run of all three boats racing in their respective finals. Seven athletes who were part of the fourth-place team in 2021 return to the spring 2023 roster: Shokoohi (1V8), Zara Collisson, Dent, Gabel (2V8), Ward, Sarah McKay and Evans (1V4).
• The Wolverines return more than half their 1V8 boat, which placed second at the Big Ten Championships and 10th at the NCAA Championships last spring: Jessica Schoonbee, Easton, Dent, Graves and Shokoohi.
• Michigan's seniors and graduate students are eight in number: Casey, Draaisma, Fitts, McMullen, McSpedon, Shokoohi, Schoonbee and Ward. Many retain additional years of eligibility, meaning they could be back on the roster in 2024.
• The Wolverines welcome 33 newcomers this spring, including five true freshmen as part of the varsity roster: Sara Houben, who hails from the Netherlands, joins Canadian trio Madeleine Lauriault, Leah Miller and Jana Peachey, along with American Logan Roeder.
2023 Spring Schedule
• U-M has five competition weekends before the Big Ten Championship regatta, including one home weekend. The schedule affords the Wolverines the chance for competitive racing in the lead-up to the postseason.
• U-M will face Duke and Virginia as part of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on April 1, followed by a larger, two-day event, the Big Ten Invitational in Florida on April 7-8.
• One-day events at Texas (April 15) and at home for Senior Day against Louisville (April 30) round out the regular season before U-M rows at the conference championship event.
• The Big Ten Championships (May 14) are in Indianapolis, Ind., again this season -- the 11th time in 12 championships since 2010. Eagle Creek Park also has hosted several NCAA Championship events, with the most recent being in 2019.
• The NCAA Championship regatta will take place in Camden County, N.J., during the final weekend in April. It places the premier event of the season in the Garden State for the first time since 2017 (U-M finished third) and the sixth time since 2000.
