STANFORD, Calif. – For the third consecutive year, Stanford women's rowing swept the end-of-year awards from the Pac-12, announced Friday. Luise Bachmann earned her first Pac-12 Athlete of the Year honor, while Matilda Drewett was named the Pac-12 Women's Rowing Newcomer of the Year and head coach Derek Byrnes was selected as the Pac-12's Coach of the Year. Drewett, alongside Annika Jeffery, Lucy Burrell and Fiona Mooney earned All-Pac-12 accolades for their strong performances this season.
Bachmann had a stellar junior campaign and one of just two Stanford student-athletes to win the conference Athlete of the Year award before her senior season (also Erika Roddy, 2009). She continues the legacy of the Cardinal's six previous winners Azja Czajkowski (2022, 2023), Ruth Narode (2017), Anna Dawson (2014), Elle Logan (2011), Roddy (2009) and Jessi Reel (2008). Bachmann was a mainstay in the Cardinal's varsity eight boat during the 2024 season, competing in the boat in all of Stanford's regular season races and at the 2024 Pac-12 Championship. Bachmann and the varsity eight boat clinched the program's third consecutive conference title at Pac-12's with a dominant first-place finish over California, finishing nearly six seconds ahead of the Golden Bears in open water.
Drewett is Stanford's fifth straight Newcomer of the Year winner, and the program's sixth recipient all-time, joining Celia Dupré (2023), Iris Klok (2022), Mathilda Kitzmann (2021), Kelsey McGinley (2019) and Abby Loughery (2003). Like last year's winner Dupré, she was the lone first-year student in the Cardinal's varsity eight boat this season, racing in all regular-season competitions and at the conference title chase.
Byrnes earns his third Pac-12 Coach of the Year honor and becomes one of just five Pac-12 coaches to be recognized as the conference's best in three straight seasons. Since 2017, he has led his team to seven top-three finishes at the conference championship (including three consecutive conference championships) and six top-6 finishes at the NCAA Championships, highlighted by last year's national title run. Byrnes has led Stanford to three of its four Pac-12 titles in program history.
All four all-conference honorees earn their first league awards. Burrell, Drewett, Jeffery, and Mooney spent the entirety of the 2024 season in the Cardinal's varsity eight boat and earned the program's third consecutive varsity eight Pac-12 title that clinched the team conference championship.
The team concludes the season May 31-June 2 at the NCAA Championships in Bethel, Ohio. The Cardinal enter the national championship regatta as the two seed in the varsity eight race, the three seed in the second varsity eight race, and the top seed in the varsity four competition.
