Western athletics’ “Year of the Viking” has been a year-long celebration of the Vikings’ 13 national championship teams. Nine women’s rowing teams were inducted into the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 5 at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
The nine rowing teams (2005–11, 2017 and 2024) joined three other squads that were inducted into the hall of fame earlier this year: 2012 men’s basketball, 2016 women’s soccer and 2022 women’s soccer.
“This event is amazing for everyone involved,” 2024 rower Mia Knipe said. “The fact that we can all come together and appreciate the same sport — that a lot of people don’t understand the work that goes into the sport — makes this a good event.”
Gallery: WWU women’s rowing teams join hall of fame
Knipe was the 2024 Collegiate Rowing Coaches of America (CRCA) Division II Rower of the Year and a first-team All-American. She was the stroke on the 2024 varsity eight boat that scored 18 of 22 total points during the national championships.
“It was this amazing experience that you can’t explain,” Knipe said. “I feel very blessed to be able to contribute and add on to the success that was already [at Western].”
The nine total national championships are tied with Division III Williams College as the most in NCAA rowing history.
“Twenty-eight years of this program contributed to the reason that we’re all here today,” former head coach John Fuchs said. “That’s a lot of coxswains.”
Fuchs was the head coach for all nine national championship teams. In 26 seasons as Western’s head coach, Fuchs won four CRCA Coach of the Year awards and led the Vikings to 20 NCAA Division II regatta appearances in 22 possible seasons, with 19 podium finishes.
Although 73 rowers were inducted at this ceremony, there are over 200 athletes who contributed to the program’s success, Fuchs said.
“You can look at all the people that were on those podiums and that might have been half the team that year,” Fuchs said. “The people that were on the team that year contributed. It was every bit their national championship as it was the people that actually got to race.”
Fuchs retired after the 2024 season, going out on top as a national champion. Courtney Moeller took over after being the top assistant under Fuchs for nine seasons.
Moeller was named the CRCA 2024 Division II Coach of the Year after the national championship win, despite being the lead assistant. It was her third national title after winning one as a rower for Western in 2005 and one as an assistant coach in 2017.
Players and coaches all recognized this day as a chance to honor Fuchs following his retirement.
“It’s coach’s leadership, passion and vision that was instrumental in creating this program to help us not only to succeed, but excel,” Moeller said.
The event was also a chance for teammates to reconnect and hold their national championship trophies one more time as they celebrated with their peers.
“Seeing all these wonderful women that have gone on to do amazing things and have been successful has been really cool,” former rower and assistant coach Lindsay Mann-King said. “I can’t explain it. It’s just been unimaginable.”
Mann-King was already in Western’s Hall of Fame as a 2019 inductee, but Saturday was celebrated as a five-time national champion: three as a rower (2005–07) and two as a coach (2010 and 2011).
“We liked pushing ourselves athletically, and when you’re on a rowing team, you become one organism,” Mann-King said. “As we went along, we continued to get stronger.”
The “Year of the Viking” concludes next weekend with the 1998 softball team’s hall of fame ceremony Saturday, April 12 at Viking Field during the current softball team’s second game of a doubleheader against Montana State University Billings.
A previous version of this story misstated the year of the 2006 trophy in a photo caption. The story was updated to reflect this change at 5:40 p.m. on April 6. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
