FALL ‘24 COACHES REPORT – WOMEN
FALL REFLECTIONS WITH SWC
Derek Byrnes, Farwell Family Director of Women’s Rowing
Wow this fall quarter has flown by. It feels like just last week we were welcoming the team back to campus. As the fall comes to a close, I am reflecting on this past year. As a program, we have so much to be grateful for and so much still ahead of us.
I’d like to start off by welcoming two new coaches, Antonella Kugler and Molly Milligan. Antonella transitioned from the Lightweight to the Openweight coaching staff, and as a former Boston University coxswain, brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to support the Stanford coxswains. Molly, a former Princeton rower, came to Stanford from the Naval Academy, and is proving to be a true sports aficionado – you can ask her any question about any professional or collegiate sport, and she’ll have the answer.
A personal highlight from this past year was just getting the chance to be a super fan and support SWC. At the Paris Olympics I was able to cheer on three recent SWC alums and a current student athlete: Emily Delleman (’20), USA Women’s Quad, Ester Briz (’22), ESP Women’s Pair, Azja Czajkowski (’23), USA Women’s Pair, and Celia Dupre (’27), SUI Women’s Quad, as they all lived out their Olympic dream. The semis proved to be really fun as Delly and Cece squared off in the quad semi–final and Azja and Esther faced each other in the pair semi–final. It was so cool to watch former Cardinal teammates competing against each other on the world stage.
My son, Liam, still talks about Celia’s quad final, which was just an epic race. Toward the end of the summer, I was able to make my way up to St. Catherine’s, Ontario for Mega Worlds. For the U23 portion of Worlds, we had a number of current and recent SWC student athletes racing. Beckie Leigh (’24) and Lucy Burrell (’25) took a silver medal racing together in the New Zealand straight four, with Mathilda Kitzmann (’24) also racing in the event, taking 10th place for Germany. In the 8+, one of the most competitive events of the regatta, we had three current SWC rowers racing for three different countries: Alice Baker (’26, Great Britain) took gold, Luise Bachmann (’25, Germany) took bronze and Sarah Marriott (’29, Australia) battled her way down the course for 4th place. For the U19 portion of Mega Worlds, I was excited to see incoming frosh Carly Brown (’29) and Charlotte Jett (’29) team up as a stroke/six–seat combination to lead the USA Women’s 8+ to a gold medal finish. Another incoming first year rower Martha Shepherd (’29) helped Great Britain to a silver medal in the straight four. It all made for a really exciting SWC summer and it was so fun to finally not be the coach pacing that sideline as crews charged down the course.
Shifting back to life on the Farm, this fall we welcomed new teammates to campus, put in a lot of productive “K” on the water, rediscovered our love for biking and maintained our undefeated stranglehold on the collegiate quad. Taking the team to the San Diego Fall Classic was easily my highlight from this fall. The team spent the weekend in the sun, chatting, beaching and racing. All in all, it was a great fall and I am excited for what’s ahead this spring.
