BOSTON – Stanford women's lightweight rowing head coach Kate Bertko was named the Intercollegiate Rowing Association and the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Lightweight Rowing National Coach of the Year. The Cardinal lightweight varsity eight was named the IRA Women's Lightweight Crew of the Year.
Bertko directed Stanford to the IRA Championship in the lightweight eight, lightweight four and lightweight double as well as the team crown earlier this month at the national championship regatta in Gold River, California. The Cardinal won all three of its Grand Final races by open water.
Stanford claimed the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders Trophy, presented annually to the IRA Champions in the lightweight eight, for the seventh time in its history. The Cardinal owns the most women's lightweight rowing national championships in the history of the sport. Wisconsin is second with five.
Stanford totaled 72 points to finish nine-points ahead of Boston University in the team standings, claiming its third consecutive IRA team crown.
In her first season at the helm of the Cardinal, Bertko guided Stanford to a No. 1 ranking in the national poll throughout the year and led the Cardinal to the IRA title in all three boats for the first time in the regatta's history.
The Stanford lightweight varsity eight featuring coxswain Shea Cours, Kate Hickey (eight-seat), Samantha Dore (seven-seat), Keagan Hanley (six-seat), Brigitte Schmittlein (five-seat), Michele Holtkamp (four-seat), Christine Cavallo, (three-seat), Brianna Goldstein (two-seat) and Isabella Garcia-Camargo (bow seat) won the IRA title by more than five seconds at the national championship regatta. It was the boat's seventh national championship in the past eight years.
Bertko, one of the United States' most decorated lightweight rowers and a 2016 Olympian, completed her first season as head coach of the Cardinal lightweight rowing program in 2017. A seven-year member of the National Team, she was named the 2013 USRowing Female Athlete of the Year.
