Meet The Washington Men's Rowing Team Class Of 2024

The newest group of freshman Washington rowers – the Class of 2024 – is ready to make its debut this Saturday, March 27, at the 120th Class Day Regatta.
 
Washington's newest oarsmen will receive their introduction either in the classless race – featuring crews comprised of members of both the men's and women's team – at 10:00 a.m., or in the George M. Varney Men's Eight, featuring one crew each from all four classes, scheduled for 10:15. The Class of 2023, this year's sophomore class, will also be racing down the Montlake Cut course for the first time, after last spring's competitive season was canceled.
 
The new group of freshmen consists of 14 individuals, from six countries, all of whom have extensive rowing experience. 
 
New Zealand native Blake Bradshaw, from Auckland, rowed at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships in 2019, taking fourth in the coxed four, and was also named to the U23 National Team in 2020. 
 
Robert Pluijmert joins the Husky program from the Netherlands, where he twice represented his country at the Coupe de la Jeunesse Regatta, winning a bronze medal in the junior coxless four in 2019.
 
Nick Dunlop is from Sydney, Australia, where he served as a coxswain for both his school and Sydney Rowing Club, with whom he advanced to a semifinal in the Britannia Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 2019.
 
Archie Drummond grew up near the Thames River in Twickenham, London, rowed for Twickenham Rowing Club and also competed at Henley in 2019. Giulio Acernese, who won gold in the Italian lightweight quad at the 2019 World Rowing Under-23 Championships, spent last school year at Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania, but never competed after the cancelation of the season.
 
Seven members of the Class of 2024 have experience with the USRowing National Team system. Gus Altucher (Portland, Ore.) rowed in the quad at 2019 Junior Worlds, teaming with Husky classmate Austin Lai (Oakland, Calif.) in that boat. Louis Gallia IV (Sacramento, Calif.) rowed for the United States at the 2019 CanAmMex Regatta, winning in both the men's eight and the men's pair.
 
Coxswain Hayden Morgan (Chicago) and rowers Caleb Cowles (Oakland, Calif.), Luca Unkovic (Larkspur, Calif.), and Abe Eligator (Larchmont, N.Y.) have all participated in USRowing selection or high performance camps.
 
Rower Owen Malone IV joins the UW program from the "other" Washington, having graduated from Gonzaga College High School in our nation's capitol. 
 
The freshman who traveled the shortest distance to Conibear Shellhouse is fourth-generation Husky Athena Baches, from Bellevue's Newport High. She coxed both boys' and girls' crews for Sammamish Rowing Association at 2019 Club Nationals.
 
One additional newcomer to the program, though not a member of the freshman class, is Pieter Quinton, a graduate transfer who earned his degree and spent four years on the rowing team at Harvard. Quinton, from Portland, Ore., competed for the U.S. at Junior Worlds in 2015 and 2016.
 
Tomorrow, they'll get their chance to show what they can do, the first of many such chances to compete on behalf of the W.
 
To check out the full Washington men's team roster, including this new group of freshmen, click here.