Season Preview: 2024-25 Michigan Rowing
3/12/2025 4:27:00 PM | Rowing
The University of Michigan rowing program enters its 34th season (29th varsity) led by head coach Mark Rothstein with another Big Ten title in sight. This spring will mark the conference's first year with 11 programs after adding UCLA, USC, and Washington. Under Rothstein, the Wolverines have finished first or second in the conference in 19 of 23 seasons.
Wolverine Bites
• Michigan is seeking its fifth conference title in six seasons following back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024.
• Michigan has placed top-12 nationally for 12 straight seasons, earning top-five finishes four times in that same span.
• U-M was ranked at No. 9 in the first edition of the CRCA Poll. U-M has been ranked as a preseason top-10 team for eight consecutive seasons.
• Select student-athletes spent time south of Orlando, Fla., leading up to the new year. More recently, athletes traveled to Caryville, Tenn., over the spring break period as part of the team's spring training trip. On and off the water, the Wolverines have been hard at work in preparation for the 2025 season.
• Abigail Dent returns to competition with the Wolverines after taking the 2024 season off to train with Team Canada and row in the Paris Summer Olympic Games. The youngest member of the boat, Dent stroked in the silver medal-winning 8+ boat.
Roster Breakdown
• U-M returns tremendous experience for the spring campaign. Twenty-five of 51 Wolverines who competed as part of the 2024 Big Ten Championship roster remain with the team, including four of nine athletes from the gold medal-winning 1V8 boat: Autumn Crowe, Katie Easton, Jana Peachey and coxswain Logan Roeder.
• Other returners from the 2024 championship squad include: Abby Hathaway, Sara Houben, Gracie Landefeld, Madeleine Lauriault, Anna Muench and Amy Newton (2V8); Gabrielle Graves, Carla Russell, Madeson Scott, coxswain Lillie Gregory (1V4); Emma Kerkau, Maddy Matos and Ashley Mitchell (2V4); Olivia Hemker and Leah Miller (3V4); Zara Bongiorno, Gretel Ham, Megan Higley, Halle Loveday and Sophie Snyder (1N8); coxswain Rumaysa Siddiqi (2N8).
• Senior Easton was named to the preseason CRCA Athletes to Watch list for the second straight year. She has earned Pocock CRCA All-America honors for the last two seasons (2023, '24) and will be a key contributor for the Maize and Blue again this year.
• The Wolverine newcomers are 32 in number. Transfer Leia Till came to the program from Virginia while 10 freshmen were welcomed to the varsity squad (Catherine Alcantara, Talia Daft, Sinéad Erasmus, Nicole Granovsky, Deanna Macolino, Tacey Moore, Alex Morales, Leija Murphy, Olive Pascoe and Ansley Vicars) and another 21 to the novice team.
• Alongside these new Wolverines, the team possesses a veteran core of 10 seniors and graduate students: Dent, Easton, Graves, Hathaway, Landefeld, Loveday, Muench, Russell, Till and Margaret Vander Woude.
2025 Spring Schedule
• Michigan has four competition weekends before the Big Ten Championship regatta. The schedule offers the Maize and Blue an opportunity to race against strong competition but also affords a chance to train without racing in the lead-up to the postseason.
• The Wolverines host no home regattas during the 2024 season and will travel for two dual-style events in late March to open their season. First is the Big Ten/Ivy Dual (March 22) in Camden, N.J., and second will be the Big Ten/ACC Challenge (March 29) in Columbus, Ohio. It will be Michigan's second straight season competing in the latter event after finishing first in nine of 14 races a year prior.
• U-M will continue its season in Austin to take on Texas (April 12). The matchup will mark the fifth straight season the Wolverines and Longhorns will battle in a head-to-head format.
• The Wolverines' final regular-season regatta is the annual Big Ten Invitational (April 18-19) taking place in Sarasota, Fla. Michigan is hosting what will be the fifth occurrence of the two-day event. The expanded Big Ten field is allowing for additional guest school invites, marking a total of 22 participating schools.
• The Big Ten Championships (May 17-18) will take place in Indianapolis, Ind., at Eagle Creek Park. After being held in Wisconsin last year, the championship event returns to Eagle Creek for the 12th time in 14 championships since 2010. It has also hosted several NCAA Championship events, the most recent being in 2019.
• The NCAA Championship regatta (May 30-June 1) will take place in West Windsor, N.J., at Mercer Lake for the fourth time and first since 2017. The location, within Richard J. Coffee Mercer County Park, yielded the Wolverines a bronze-medal finish its last time hosting.
They Said It
"Our team has been training well and received great support since coming together in September, and we are excited for our racing over the coming months. Together, we will put forth our best and learn from each race to ensure we deliver our very best in May." -- Katie Easton on training as a team and learning from races leading into the postseason
"I think the team has really come together in a way that I've never seen before. There has been so much trust in the process, and everyone is locked into doing what is necessary to create speed. I fully believe that the trust we have built together in the team throughout the fall and winter will be the key to our success this spring. I'm so excited to give everything I've got for the team this season." -- Gabbie Graves on how she has seen the team come together as the season approaches
Players Mentioned
