WSU took on the Oregon State Beavers and the Miami Hurricanes at Dexter Lake. The Cougars won one of the races (3×8+) by 23 seconds and lost another by under a second. The Cougs did not win any other races but ended up in second place in three out of the other five races March 23.
The match was a reunion for head coach Jane LaRiviere as she coached for Oregon State for eight years. She has been the head coach of WSU’s rowing team for over 20 years.
LaRiviere said how grateful she was for Wazzu giving her the chance to become the head coach of the rowing team especially since she had no prior experience being a head coach. LaRiviere credited her athletes and their passion along with work ethic for the long-term success WSU has had under her leadership. This is something she looks for when recruiting outside the measurable values. She wants to know how much heart a potential recruit has.
LaRiviere said WSU rowing will not be as impacted by the collapse of the Pac-12 as other programs may be because the West Coast Conference is a strong conference for rowing, sporting seven sponsored schools. They also will have a meet with eight teams from conferences all around the country such as the SEC and ACC and so forth for a chance to compete for a spot in the NCAA rowing championship.
WSU rowing has had its fair share of Olympic-level athletes. LaRiviere said there are so many to choose from but based on career accomplishments, she highlighted Lisa Roman. Roman was a part of the team that won a gold medal in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. Roman also won a silver medal at the women’s eight competition at the 2014 World Rowing Championship. LaRiviere said how Roman has been an amazing ambassador and a great role model to show athletes they can accomplish their career goals at WSU.
Being a head coach was not something LaRiviere dreamed of or wanted. Being from Canada, she said that aside from being a figure skating or hockey coach, she did not think of being a professional sports coach.
Early in her life, she was at a crossroads between coaching, rowing or becoming a professor. She told herself she would give coaching a couple of years and after, if she wanted, she would be a professor instead. But 20 years later she is still coaching because of the impact she believes she has on her athletes career and life after college and sports.
