100% NCAA: Meet the women’s rowing team
The 24 members of the squad can boast of 9 NCAA championships between them
The NCAA’s presence on Team USA will be massive — over 65% of the 592 athletes are current, former or incoming NCAA student-athletes.
All 24 members of the women’s rowing team have competed at NCAA schools, spanning eight conferences.
Team member Michelle Sechser discussed her fifth-place finish in the 2020 Olympics, finishing only one second behind the gold medalist.
“To come one second away from the gold medal is tough,” the Tulsa graduate said. “It’s just enough that I’m disappointed and hungry for more and really fired up to train harder, but also close enough that there’s a part of me that really believes that my partner Molly Reckford and I are capable of bringing it home.”
Paris will be the last time the women’s lightweight doubles event will compete in the Olympics. Sechser said she has found excitement through the heartbreak of this being her last Olympic run.
“(It feels like) this grand culmination of the lightweight women’s double, which has gotten faster and faster. Every year, every Olympic cycle, we’ve seen the world record break,” the 37-year-old said. “Knowing this is the last dance kind of makes it like, just how fast can we make a lightweight women’s double go, and I think Paris is going to be the time for that to go.”
Meet the team
- Molly Bruggeman, Notre Dame.
- Charlotte Buck, Columbia.
- Cristina Castagna, Washington.
- Olivia Coffey, Harvard.
- Teal Cohen, Washington.
- Claire Collins, Princeton.
- Azja Czajkowski, Stanford.
- Emily Delleman, Stanford.
- Margaret Hedeman, Yale.
- Grace Joyce, Wisconsin.
- Emily Kallfelz, Princeton.
- Kaitlin Knifton, Texas.
- Kara Kohler, California.
- Mary Mazzio-Manson, Yale.
- Meghan Musnicki, Ithaca.
- Lauren O’Connor, Wisconsin.
- Molly Reckford, Dartmouth.
- Kelsey Reelick, Princeton.
- Regina Salmons, Pennsylvania.
- Michelle Sechser, Tulsa.
- Jessica Thoennes, Washington.
- Sophia Vitas, Wisconsin.
- Kristi Wagner, Yale.
- Madeleine Wanamaker, Wisconsin.
NCAA connections
The success of these rowers began during their collegiate days, with a total of nine NCAA championships.
Knifton won two national championships at Texas, earning Big 12 Rower of the Year in 2023. Thoennes, a walk-on at Washington, took part in the first sweep in NCAA history, considering it one of her favorite sporting accomplishments.
Coffey and Musnicki each added two NCAA championships to the U.S. team, while Mazzio-Manson, Reelick, Kohler, Czajkowski and Cohen each earned one championship.
Collins, a nominee for the NCAA’s Woman of the Year award, earned three-time All-America honors and four-time All-Ivy honors while winning four Ivy League championships.
Olympic experience
The roster boasts many experienced Olympians. Salmons, Coffey, Reckford, Sechser, Wanamaker, Wagner, Thoennes, Collins and Buck will be competing in their second Games. Paris will be Kohler’s third Olympics and Musnicki’s fourth.
Kohler won a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics; Musnicki earned gold medals in 2012 and 2016.
Paris will be the first Olympic competition for Vitas, Castagna, Mazzio-Manson, Hedeman, Reelick, Knifton, Kallfelz, Czajkowski, Delleman, Joyce, O’Connor and Cohen.
Tune in
- Saturday, July 27 (4:12 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls heats.
- Saturday, July 27 (6:00 p.m. ET) — women’s double sculls heats.
- Saturday, July 27 (6:50 p.m. ET) — women’s quadruple sculls heats.
- Sunday, July 28 (3:00 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls repechages.
- Sunday, July 28 (4:10 p.m. ET) — women’s double sculls repechages.
- Sunday, July 28 (4:30 p.m. ET) — women’s pair heats.
- Sunday, July 28 (5:30 p.m. ET) — lightweight women’s double sculls heats.
- Sunday, July 28 (6:30 p.m. ET) — women’s four heats.
- Monday, July 29 (3:54 p.m. ET) — women’s sculls semifinals.
- Monday, July 29 (4:30 p.m. ET) — women’s pair repechages.
- Monday, July 29 (5:00 p.m. ET) — lightweight women’s double sculls repechages.
- Monday, July 29 (5:30 p.m. ET) — women’s quadruple sculls repechages.
- Monday, July 29 (6:00 p.m. ET) — women’s eight heats.
- Tuesday, July 30 (3:30 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls quarterfinals.
- Tuesday, July 30 (4:50 p.m. ET) — women’s double sculls quarterfinals.
- Tuesday, July 30 (5:30 p.m. ET) — women’s four repechages.
- Wednesday, July 31 (3:42 p.m. ET) — lightweight women’s double sculls Final C.
- Wednesday, July 31 (4:14 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls semifinals.
- Wednesday, July 31 (4:54 p.m. ET) — women’s pair semifinals.
- Wednesday, July 31 (5:34 p.m. ET) — lightweight women’s double sculls semifinals.
- Wednesday, July 31 (6:14 p.m. ET) — women’s quadruple sculls finals.
- Thursday, Aug. 1 (3:30 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls semifinals.
- Thursday, Aug. 1 (4:10 p.m. ET) — women’s eight repechages.
- Thursday, Aug. 1 (4:30 p.m. ET) — women’s double sculls finals.
- Thursday, Aug. 1 (4:54 p.m. ET) — women’s four finals.
- Friday, Aug. 2 (3:42 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls finals.
- Friday, Aug. 2 (4:54 p.m. ET) — women’s pair finals.
- Friday, Aug. 2 (5:18 p.m. ET) — lightweight women’s double sculls finals.
- Saturday, Aug. 3 (3:30 p.m. ET) — women’s single sculls finals.
- Saturday, Aug. 3 (4:50 p.m. ET) — women’s eight Final A.
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
