Molly Milligan

Molly Milligan enters her third season as an assistant coach for Stanford's women's rowing program in 2026-27.

Stanford women’s rowing’s 2026 campaign continued its tradition of national dominance. The Cardinal posted its sixth consecutive top-two finish at the NCAA Championship regatta, headlined by its fourth straight national title in the Second Varsity Eight boat. Stanford also won its fifth consecutive conference title and second straight Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) team crown in back-to-back regatta sweeps, becoming the first ACC team since Virginia (2015–16) to sweep all races two years in a row. Five Cardinal were named CRCA First Team All-Americans for the fourth straight year, and Stanford was named both ACC Crew of the Year (varsity eight) and earned five All-ACC awards (Casano, Drewett, Dupré, Goodwillie and Jeffery.  

The Cardinal regained its spot at the top of the collegiate rowing world in 2025, winning its fourth consecutive conference title, the first as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and the program’s third NCAA team title guided by individual national championships from the varsity four and second varsity eight boats. Throughout the 2025 season, the Cardinal boasted a lineup of five CRCA First Team All-Americans in Luise Bachmann, Matilda Drewett, Célia Dupré, Iris Klok, and Honor Warburg, the ACC Crew of the Year in its varsity eight boat, the ACC Newcomer of the Year in Sarah Marriott, the ACC and CRCA Region 3 Coach of the year in head coach Derek Byrnes, and the CRCA Division I Staff of the Year in Alben Family Associate Head Coach Hamrick, Antonella Kugler, Maegan Neihart, Milligan, and director of operations Emily Sprigings. In its first appearance at the ACC Championship regatta, Stanford captured all five conference boat titles, becoming the first league school to do so since 2021, and sent five rowers to the All-ACC Teams (First Team: Bachmann, Klok, Dupré, and Warburg; Second Team: Alice Baker). 

Milligan came to The Farm after two seasons as an assistant coach with the Navy’s women’s rowing team. Milligan boasted collegiate rowing experience as a student-athlete and a coach, spending four years with Princeton’s program during her undergraduate education and coaching for the Wisconsin Badgers as a graduate assistant for the 2021 and 2022 seasons before heading to Navy. 

In her two campaigns with the Mids, Milligan coached the lower boats and aided in the program's effort to return to the top of the Patriot League standings, winning the Patriot League Championship in 2023, leading to 2023 CRCA Region 2 Co-Staff of the Year honors. In 2024, Navy completed their season with a runner-up finish at the Patriot League Championships, highlighted by second-place finishes in the V8 and V4. 

During her time in Madison, Milligan aided the Badgers to a fourth-place finish at the 2021 Big Ten Championships and a 14th-place national finish in the same season. In 2022, the Badgers finished sixth in the Big Ten after racing a top-flight schedule throughout the season.