1st Year Rower Finds Success at Iowa

May 9, 2014

By JIL PRICE
hawkeyesports.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Freshman Morgan Grastorf — a three-time captain and most valuable player on Waubonsie Valley High School’s basketball team — was recruited by the University of Iowa women’s rowing program with no experience. She became a Hawkeye in the fall and has found much success in her first year as a rower.

Grastorf has competed in each spring regatta for the Hawkeyes as a part of the V8+ crew and was recently invited to attend the 2014 USRowing Women’s Pre-Elite Camp at Princeton in June. The camp grooms up-and-coming rowers for the national teams and is a great honor in the rowing realm.

“We couldn’t be more pleased for Morgan and I think it will be great to have the Iowa colors at the camp,” first-year head coach Andrew Carter said. “As a freshman talent-transfer prospect, Morgan came to Iowa with very little exposure to rowing. This certainly hasn’t kept her from excelling in her first year. Morgan has a quiet intensity, an incredible capacity for work, and a lot of the natural tools needed to be a successful rower. Everyone here is excited for her to have this opportunity and we’ll continue to support her in all the ways we can as she heads to Princeton in June.”

The Naperville, Illinois native is one of eight freshmen and one of 16 student-athletes selected to take part in the camp.

“I’m so shocked that I will be among those people because I just started rowing nine months ago,” Grastorf said. “The fact that I’m getting invited to this is just really cool. The coaches and I talked about it and they told me how big of a deal this is. I still don’t understand how big of a deal it is. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

“It’s a big deal to be invited as a freshman. I’m just excited and hope I can learn as much as I can because I know I’ll have a lot of really good coaches there. I’m hoping to take what I’ve learned at this camp and bring it back with me to Iowa so I can apply it to next year.”

The USRowing Women’s Pre-Elite Camp begins on June 8 and continues through June 22 in Princeton, New Jersey.

The Hawkeyes begin postseason competition at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday, May 18. The regatta — scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. (CT) — will be held at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Indiana for the fourth consecutive year.