The 2023 Washington Rowing season gets underway Saturday morning with the 122nd annual Class Day Regatta, where many members of the UW team will row down Montlake Cut in a competitive environment for the first time.
 
One of the many traditions associated with the regatta is the introduction of the newest group of freshmen and newcomers, and this year's collection of new UW women's team members is an impressive one.
 
The new cast of athletes includes nine experienced rowers and coxswains, 15 walk-ons who are (with a couple of exceptions) just beginning to row here at UW, and five women who transferred to Washington this school year after having competed at another college. In total, the 2023 roster includes 29 new members.
 
The nine experienced newcomers include four women from the state of Washington; and one each from Texas, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire and British Columbia, Canada.
 
The four from Washington state are: coxswain Camille Randall (Seattle/Seattle Prep); and rowers Lily Brecht (Seattle/Seattle Prep), Cora Madison (Kirkland/International), and Izzy Peters (Bellingham/Squalicum).
 
Randall won gold and silver medals in Seattle Prep shells at Head of the Lake, and also finished second in the men's junior 4x at 2022 Windermere Cup. Brecht, whose uncle, Carl, rowed at Washington, was in the winning women's junior 4x at that same regatta last spring.
 
Peters rowed for Whatcom Rowing Association and was also a standout in volleyball and basketball in high school, while Madison, whose mother rowed at Wisconsin, competed for Sammamish Rowing Association.
 
The five from out of state are Luella Bowersock (Austin, Texas), Mira Calder (Victoria, B.C.), coxswain Olivia Murdock (Atlanta, Ga.), Isabelle Tinsley (Venice, Fla.), and coxswain Ashlyn Wilshire (Bedford, N.H.).
 
Bowersock won numerous team awards at Texas Rowing Center, while also earning a long list of state and regional championship medals. Calder is the daughter of four-time Canadian Olympian and UW alumnus Dave Calder '00. Mira competed at 2022 World Rowing Under 19 Championships in 2022, finishing fifth in the pair.
 
Murdock joins her older sister, Grace, who is also a UW women's team coxswain. Olivia coxed at St. Andrew Rowing Club, just north of Atlanta. Tinsley was a member of Sarasota Crew, a traditionally strong and successful club, while Wilshire was a coxswain for the Moorestown Rowing Club in New Jersey.
 
Washington's historically successful walk-on program has added 15 women, all of whom were able to earn a place on the roster. The 15 include 14 rowers and one coxswain, from eight different states. They are: Zoë Bischoff (Seattle/Holy Names), coxswain Mia Carter (Evansville, Ind./Reitz Memorial), Madison Hanahan, (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty), Caitlin Hane (Irvine, Calif./University), Claudia Horton (Olympia, Wash./Olympia), Ellina Ivanova (Calabasas, Calif./Calabasas), Katey Krisky (Portland, Ore./Mountainside), Dani Lohrenz (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka), Cami Martin (Seattle, Wash./Nathan Hale), Ellie Nemeth (Olympia, Wash./A.G. West Black Hills), Jordan Poces-Bell (Naperville, Ill./Metea Valley), Sofie Sand (Rochester, Wash./Rochester), Shannon Strasmann (Orange County, Calif./Corona del Mar), Scout Wilson (San Antonio, Texas/United World Colleges (Wales)), and Margaret Young (San Anselmo, Colo./Archie Williams).
 
Nemeth was a youth rower for Olympia Area Rowing Club. She, along with all of the others, were generally outstanding high school students and athletes who competed in a variety of sports, including basketball, lacrosse, basketball, track and cross country, soccer, tennis and cheer.
 
Nemeth's older brother, Corban, rowed at UW, while Lohrenz's sister (UW assistant coach Allie Lohrenz) and mother both rowed at Wisconsin. Wilson's mother was a rower at George Washington University.
 
Also among the newest Huskies are five transfer students.
 
Both Elena Collier-Hezel and Jeri Rhodes come to Montlake from the University of Michigan, where they both were key members of the Wolverines' success. Collier-Hezel (Buffalo, N.Y.) won a Big Ten title in the 2V8+ in 2021, while taking second in the varsity eight in 2022. She has rowed for the United States in each of the last two World Rowing Under 23 Championships, winning a bronze medal in the coxed four in 2022.
 
Rhodes, from St. Louis, Mo., won bronze in the Michigan 2V8+ at NCAAs in 2019, and won three Big Ten championships in that crew. She also rowed at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, earning a bronze medal in the U.S. women's eight.
 
Rhodes and Collier-Hezel also each earned Academic All-Big Ten while at Michigan.
 
Allison Jakeway, from Maple Ridge, B.C., Canada, came to rowing relatively late, after a competing in ice hockey, lacrosse and basketball. She began her college career at the University of Fraser Valley last year. Jakeway, whose parents both rowed at the University of Victoria, was invited to her nation's RBC Training Ground, where she was awarded federal funds to train for rowing.
 
Jordan Freer, from Lotus, Calif. (located between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe), was a swimmer and water polo player in high school, but walked on to the rowing team at UC Santa Barbara as a freshman in 2021-22.
 
Briana Hopper, who graduated from Seattle's Holy Names Academy, spent her freshman year (2021-22) at Cornell, where she was on the rowing team, but returns to her hometown to continue her college career. She won silver in the women's youth pair at 2021 Youth Nationals.
 
For more details on any of these new Women of Washington, click on their names to link to their full bio.