July 8, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – Recent Notre Dame graduate Amanda Polk, who distinguished herself as the first four-time All-American in the history of the Irish rowing program, has been named to the 2008 Under-23 World Championships Team. Polk will compete as a member of the Women’s Eight as the first Notre Dame rower named to a national team.
Polk will be part of an American contingent of 14 crews and 47 members that will represent the United States at the ’08 FISA World Rowing Under-23 Championships that will be held July 17-20 in Bradenburg, Germany.
In addition to the women’s eight, the U.S. will have crews competing in the lightweight men’s single sculls, lightweight women’s single sculls, men’s single sculls, women’s single sculls, lightweight men’s double sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s pair, men’s pair, lightweight men’s four, men’s four, women’s four, men’s four with coxswain and men’s eight.
Joining Polk as a member of the women’s eight crew will be Katelin Snyder (University of Washington), Suzanne Van Fleet (Clemson University), Katherine Glessner (Northeastern University), Jamie Redman (Yale University), Laura Larsen-Strecker (Harvard University), Theresa Shields (University of Wisconsin), Kelsie Chaudoin (University of Virginia) and Jessica Reel (Stanford University).
Polk concluded her Notre Dame career as the most decorated rower in the 10-year history of the program. In 2008, she garnered first team All-America honors by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) for the third consecutive year and concluded her career as a four-time honoree after earning second-team accolades as a freshman. Polk, a four-time CRCA all-Central Region first-team selection, rowed in the varsity eight boat throughout here career.
A four-time monogram winner and tri-captain during the 2007-08 campaign, she led the varsity eight boat to a final ranking of 18th in CRCA/US Rowing poll and helped her crew to a third consecutive gold medal at the BIG EAST Championships as Notre Dame won the team title for the fifth consecutive year.
During Polk’s career, Notre Dame achieved unmatched success earning back-to-back berths in the NCAA Championships. In 2008, in the program’s first-ever appearance in the team competition, the Irish a ninth-place finish, and followed that up with a 12th-place finish in 2007. Her ’06 varsity eight crew won the Petite Final at the NCAA Championships after winning the gold medal at the Central/South Region Championships and finished fifth in the final CRCA/US Rowing ranking. In ’07, Notre Dame finished in the top-10 of the national rankings with a sixth-place finish and placed third at the Central/South regionals.
“This is tremendous honor for Amanda and I am thrilled that she is part of the national program,” Notre Dame head coach Martin Stone said. “She has worked extremely hard and deserves to be competing at the highest level. Amanda meant so much to our program for four years and this truly is a fitting way for her to begin another chapter of her athletic career.”