Lowell McNicholas

In 2025, McNicholas guided Iowa’s Varsity Eight to its fourth year earning, Big Ten Boat of the Week recognitions. The Hawkeyes delivered their most commanding performance of the season during the second day of the Kansas Double Duel, securing victories in six out of seven races.

In 2024, Iowa consistently received national poll votes for nine straight weeks. That same year, the team competed at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta, where the Varsity Eight raced for the Island Challenge Cup and the Varsity Four vied for the Princess Grace Challenge Cup. Notably, Eve Stewart (2020) earned a spot on the Great Britain Rowing Team for the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the first Hawkeye rower to compete in the Olympics and win a Bronze medal.

Throughout the 2023 season, Iowa appeared in the CRCA Pocock Poll for 10 consecutive weeks. McNicholas helped the team secure a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championship, earning 90 points—the fifth-highest total in program history.

In McNicholas’s debut season with the Hawkeyes, the team was recognized in the CRCA Pocock Poll for eight straight weeks. Iowa collected four Big Ten Boat of the Week honors, with accolades going to the Varsity Eight, III Varsity Four, and twice to the Varsity Four. The team’s fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championship marked its best result since 2018.

Assistant coach Lowell McNicholas joined the Hawkeye program in December 2021.

McNicholas joins the Hawkeye coaching staff after previously serving as an assistant coach for the Wisconsin men’s rowing program.

“I am thrilled to join the Hawkeye rowing team,” said McNicholas. “I am grateful for the last six years working with the Badgers and feel fortunate to now have the opportunity to work with another incredible program. As soon as I met with Coach Garbutt and some of the athletic department staff I knew that Iowa was a team I wanted to be a part of. I look forward to working alongside Coach Garbutt, Thurstin, Fitzpatrick and Pearson, as well as the many other phenomenal people supporting the rowing team. I am excited for this next chapter in Iowa City and eager to meet the team and get to work.”

McNicholas was a two-year letterwinner for the Badgers in 2012 and 2013 and an academic All-Big Ten honoree in 2013. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wisconsin and joined the Badgers coaching staff in 2015. He has six years of collegiate coaching experience.