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Pac-12 announces 2018 Rowing All-Conference Honors

May 24, 2018

WASHINGTON’S BROOKE MOONEY NAMED WOMEN’S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

WASHINGTON’S SOFIA ASOUMANAKI
VOTED WOMEN’S NEWCOMERS OF THE YEAR
WASHINGTON’S FAROOQ TABBED WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR

CALIFORNIA'S NATAN WEGRZYCKI-SZYMCZYK VOTED MEN’S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

 WASHINGTON’S CHRIS CARLSON
AS MEN’S ROWING NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
WASHINGTON’S MICHAEL CALLAHAN NAMED MEN’S ROWING COACH OF THE YEAR

SAN FRANCISCO - The 2018 Pac-12 Rowing All-Conference honors and All-Pac-12 teams were announced today by the Conference office. WASHINGTON swept the women’s awards as Brooke Mooney was named the Pac-12 Rowing Athlete of the Year, Sofia Asoumanaki was tabbed Newcomer of the Year and head coach Yasmin Farooq earned Women’s Rowing Coach of the Year honors. On the men’s side, CALIFORNIA senior Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk garnered Pac-12 Rowing Athlete of the Year honors for the third-straight year. Washington’s Chris Carlson received Men’s Rowing Newcomer of the Year recognition and Michael Callahan was named Men’s Rowing Coach of the Year.

The Athlete of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards are voted on and nominated by the Conference’s coaches. Candidates for Athlete of the Year must have participated in the Varsity 8 race at the Pac-12 Championships.

PAC-12 WOMEN’S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR – Brooke Mooney, Washington
Mooney, a senior from Peru, Vt., rowed every race in Washington’s Varsity 8 this season and led the team to its second consecutive Pac-12 Rowing Championship. It marks her second time as a Pac-12 champion in the Varsity 8 after walking on her freshman year. Mooney is the first Washington rower to earn the award since it was established in 2008. This year, she also broke Washington’s all-time 2k erg record in addition to setting the USA women’s watts record. Mooney has been invited to the U.S. Senior Team selection camp after NCAAs.

PAC-12 WOMEN’S NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR – Sofia Asoumanaki, Washington
Asoumanaki, a freshman from Athens, Greece, was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year after making an immediate impact on Washington’s first Varsity 8+. Asoumanaki, who is the fifth Husky to win the award, spent the majority of year as the team’s five-seat and competed in five regattas throughout the season, highlighted by the Varsity 8 victory that clinched the Huskies’ Pac-12 Championship crown. She has spent the last three years competing for the Greece National Team and represented her country in the women's double sculls at the 2016 Olympic Games, finishing fourth in the A final.

PAC-12 WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR – Yasmin Farooq, Washington
Farooq has been named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in each of her first two seasons at the helm of the Washington women’s rowing program (2017, 2018), coaching the Huskies to back-to-back Pac-12 Championship titles for the program’s first titles since 2003. The Huskies swept all four scoring races to earn the 2018 Conference title for the 14th crown in program history. Washington received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Rowing Championship and will look to defend its 2017 national championship this weekend in Sarasota, Fla. UW was the first program in NCAA Rowing’s 21-year history to complete a clean sweep of all three grand finals in winning the 2017 title. Before her time at Washington, she spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Stanford, where she was honored with the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association National Coach of the Year and the CRCA West Region Coach of the Year in 2009 and also garnered Pac-12 Coach of the Year in both 2008 and 2014.

 

PAC-12 MEN’S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR - Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk, California
Wegrzycki-Szymczyk was named the Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Athlete of the Year for the third consecutive season and earned All-Conference recognition for the fourth-straight season while competing on Cal’s Varsity 8 all four years. Wegrzycki-Szymczyk is the first athlete to earn this award in three straight seasons and marks Cal’s sixth all-time Athlete of the Year nod. The senior majoring in sociology was named the 2018 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and has received a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship to continue his education at the University of Cambridge after graduation. Wegrzycki-Szymczyk stroked the Bears’ Varsity 8 to a second-place finish at the Pac-12 Championship. Wegrzycki-Szymczyk competed for his native Poland at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, finishing seventh in the men’s single scull event.

PAC-12 MEN’S NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR – Chris Carlson, Washington
Carlson, a junior from Bedford, N.H., rowed primarily in the three seat of the Varsity 8 and also contributed to the second Varsity 8 during his first season at Washington. Carlson won all six races he competed in, including the Varsity 8 that helped Washington repeat as Pac-12 Champions. Carlson is a transfer from Marist College where he rowed the Varsity 4+ that finished third in the petite final at the 2017 IRA Championships. On the international stage, he rowed in the five seat in the U.S. men's eight that finished fourth at the 2017 World Rowing Under-23 Championships in Bulgaria, and has been invited to the USRowing Under-23 National Team Selection camp for 2018.

PAC-12 MEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR – Michael Callahan, Washington
In his ninth season as head coach of the Washington men’s rowing team, Callahan led the Huskies to their second-straight Pac-12 Conference title. UW won 3-of-4 races to bring home the program’s 36th all-time Pac-12 Championship. After winning the league crown in 2017, the Huskies went on to win the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship, securing the Ten Eyck Trophy (team points title) for the 10th time in 11 years. In June 2015, Washington men’s crew made history by winning their fifth straight and 18th overall IRA National Championship. At the 2012, 2013 and 2015 IRA Regattas, Washington achieved perfect sweeps by all five Husky boats—a feat unmatched by any crew in the history of the regatta.

By claiming the Varsity 8 competitions at the Pac-12 Championships, the Washington men and women headline the 2018 Pac-12 Rowing All-Conference teams, which were also announced by the Conference office Tuesday.

Members of the All-Conference rowing teams are based upon each institution’s finish in the Varsity 8 race at the Pac-12 Championships, which were held on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The Conference champion provides four members of the All-Conference team, the second-place crew provides three members, and the third-place finisher provides two. All other participating crews receive one selection each

WOMEN’S ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Marlee Blue, Washington
Saskia Budgett, UCLA
Mia Croonquist, California
Stephanie Grauer, Stanford
Alina Hagstrom, Oregon State
Phoebe Marks-Nicholes, Washington
Brooke Mooney, Washington
Emily Morrow, Washington State
Radka Novotnikova, USC
Meg Saunders, Stanford
Tabea Schendekehl, Washington
Leigh Warner, Stanford

MEN’S ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Baxter Call, Oregon State
Samuel Halbert, Washington
Liam Herrick, Colorado
Martin Mackovic, California
Rielly Milne, Washington
Devon McCornack, WSU
Dominic Pardini, UCLA
Viktor Pivac, Washington
Bram Schwarz, Washington
Joachim Sutton, California
Drew Taylor, Stanford
Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk, California
Brennan Wertz, Stanford