After joining the Cardinal coaching staff in September 2020, Sarah Dougherty enters her third season with the Stanford Women's Rowing team in 2022-23.
Stanford produced a runner-up finish for the second consecutive season at the 2022 NCAA Championships while also winning the program's first conference title since 2014 at the Pac-12 Championships held at Dexter Lake. Stanford women's rowing swept the end-of-year awards from the Pac-12, led by Azja Czajkowski's Athlete of the Year honor. Iris Klok was named the Pac-12 Women's Rowing Newcomer of the Year. Czajkowski, Esther Briz Zamorano, Katelin Gildersleeve and Caroline Ricksen earned All-Pac-12 accolades for their strong performances in the 2022 season. Five Cardinal women's rowers were named 2022 Pocock Racing Shells All-America Athletes, as Briz Zamorano, Czajkowski, Gildersleeve, and Ricksen each earned first-team honors. Fifth-year Kaitlyn Kynast was honored with second-team accolades. Additionally, the program earned its first-ever CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America honor, won by fifth year senior Grace McGinley. The award honors an elite student-athlete in the classroom and on the water. Dougherty worked with the Cardinal's third varsity eight boat that produced a first-place finish at the conference championship and Stanford's varsity four boat that won a conference title and finished fourth at the national championship regatta.
Her first full season on The Farm was a successful one, as the Cardinal finished second at both the Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Championships in 2021.
Dougherty arrived on campus having spent the previous 16 months as Head Masters Coach and Head Novice Girls Coach at Texas Rowing Center in Austin, Texas. The coaching experience came on the heels of nearly four years as an athlete for USRowing, where she trained as a full-time rower in preparation for the Olympics in Tokyo. She has consistently medaled for the United States at world championships, including golds at the 2015 and 2016 U23 Championships in the 8+ and 4-.
Daugherty was a four-year member of the rowing team at Washington, where she graduated in 2016 and was an All-American and first team All-Pac-12 selection as a senior.