Aug. 9, 2006
West Windsor, NJ – Former Hawkeye rower Michelle Trannel has earned a berth on the U.S. national rowing team and a trip to the 2006 World Rowing Championhips, which will be held in Eton, England. Trannel was a member of the lightweight women’s quadruple sculls team that swept the best-of-three trials August 4 on Lake Mercer near Princeton, NJ.
Trannel and her teammates defeated the Riverside Boat Club, which included rowers from Boston’s Union Boat Club, Philadelphia’s Undine Barge Club and the Penn Athletic Club by 2.5 seconds with a time of 6:35.96.
“This is very exciting for Michelle,” Iowa Head Rowing Coach Mandi Kowal said. “She had this dream and was able to achieve it with a lot of encouragement and support. Nobody from Iowa has ever done what she accomplished. She completely changed her discipline to sculling and had only been training for about a year. Michelle is a ferocious trainer who put in a lot of time and it paid off. Hopefully, other athletes at Iowa can realize they have this potential too.”
Trannel was a first team all-Big Ten and central regional selection at Iowa in 2005. She was also named academic all-Big Ten in 2003-05.