Women's Rowing
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- yfarooq@uw.edu
- Phone:
- (650) 387-8969
It didn't take long for Yasmin "Yaz" Farooq and her coaching staff. In fact, it took just one season to get the Washington women's rowing program back to the pinnacle of the sport. And, after seven years on Montlake, the UW program has reached the highest heights, winning two NCAA titles while making the podium every year.
In 2025-26, Farooq enters her 10th season in charge of the UW women's program.
In 2024-25, Farooq helped usher the program into a new era as Washington joined the Big Ten Conference. In their first trip to the Big Ten Championships, Farooq's Huskies made history, sweeping all seven grand finals to earn the UW athletic department's first-ever Big Ten team championship. The Huskies were just the second program ever to sweep every Big Ten final.
At 2025 NCAA Championships, Washington recorded another podium finish, taking fourth place overall, while earning silver medals in both the second eights and the fours. In eight NCAA regattas under Farooq (the 2020 event was canceled), UW has never finished outside of the top five, and have brought home a team trophy (given to first through fourth place) seven times.
UW rower Aisha Rocek was named Big Ten Women's Rowing Athlete of the Year in the Huskies' first season in their new conference.
In 2024, the Huskies finished fifth at NCAA Championships, as once again, all three crews reached the grand finals. Following the season, the UW women's program watched with pride as seven UW women, all of whom were coached by Farooq, represneted their countries at the Olympic Games. Three of those UW alumnae earned bronze medals: Phoebe Spoors (New Zealand four), Tabea Schendekehl (German quad), and Holly Dunford (British eight).
The 2022-23 season may have represented one of the Huskies' best under Farooq. Washington headed to the NCAA Championships seeded No. 8 overall in the varsity eight and No. 4 in the second varsity eight. Had those seedings borne out, UW's streak of podium (top-four) finishes under Farooq would end.
Instead, the Huskies finished second in both of the top-two races, earning themselves the silver medal as a team as well. It was the second runner-up finish under Farooq and kept alive the UW's feat of never having finished outside of the top-10 in the 26-year history of the NCAA Championship Regatta.
Following the 2023 season, four Huskies – Angharad Broughton, McKenna Bryant, Nina Castagna and Ella Cossill – were named first-team CRCA Pocock All-America, while Madi Frampton made second team. A total of 16 UW women earned a spot on the Pac-12's Spring Academic Honor Roll.
The 2023 finish followed a fourth-place team finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships, and third place at the 2021 event, when Washington's second eight and four both won their grand final. In 2021, Farooq was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, while rower Ella Cossill was the conference's Rower of the Year.
In 2022, Teal Cohen and Cossill were named to the All-America first team, while Holly Drapp made the second team while 20 Huskies made the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll. In 2021, Cossill and Tabea Schendekehl were first-team All-America selections, while Castagna and Cohen earned second-team honors. Incredibly, 48 Washington women were named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll for spring of 2021.
Under Farooq's guidance, the program has continued to turn out national team athletes at a steady pace. Ten UW alumnae traveled to the Toyko Olympic Games in 2021, when Farooq served as a support coach for the United States team. This summer in Paris, a similar number of former Washington women will compete for medals.
In 2019, after winning a third straight Pac-12 title, Washington pulled off its second sweep at the NCAA Championships – just the second ever. The Huskies' varsity eight (racing in the first final of the day) stunned the crowd in Indianapolis with an incredible come-from behind victory, which was followed by wins by the UW's second varsity eight and the varsity four.
For her and her team's successes in 2019, Farooq was named the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association's National Coach of the Year, while her staff earned Coaching Staff of the Year. She was also the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2019. Five Husky rowers earned CRCA All-America, while five more made the CRCA's Scholar-Athlete team. Meanwhile, 17 UW women earned some level of Academic All-Pac-12.
While the 2020 season was almost entirely lost due to the global pandemic, the UW women continued to excel in the classroom. In the winter, 2020, academic quarter, a total of 23 members of the women's team made the Deans List. The following quarter (spring, 2020), that number ballooned to 36. A total of 23 women made the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll for 2020.
In her first year in charge of the Huskies – 2016-17 – Farooq led the UW to historic heights. Washington won the NCAA Championship on Lake Mercer in New Jersey in unprecedented fashion, becoming the first team in the 21-year history of the NCAA regatta to win all three grand finals.
More success followed in the spring of 2018. For the second year in a row, the UW women won the Pac-12 Conference Championship, sweeping all five races at Lake Natoma. The Huskies also hosted one of the most memorable Windermere Cup/Opening Day regattas ever as two UW entries hung in with an experienced Dutch National Team eight. At NCAAs, Washington's women won the championship in the second varsity eight and finished second in both the varsity eight and varsity four, earning the team an overall second-place finish.
Farooq was named CRCA District V Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Meanwhile, five Huskies earned All-America, four earned a spot on the National Scholar-Athlete team and 21 earned some level of Academic All-Pac-12 honors.
Following the 2018 college season, Farooq took three boats to the Henley Royal Regatta: in the women's eight (Remenham Challenge Cup), women's quad sculls (Princess Grace Challenge) and the women's double sculls (Stonor Challenge Trophy). The UW eight turned in one of the top races of the entire regatta, offering a firm challenge the Great Britain National Team in the Remenham semifinal.
Farooq has stated publicly that her intent is to bring her team to Henley every four years, which is as frequently as NCAA rules allow.
Additionally, Husky rowers and coxswains continued to be a major presence at international, summer regattas, as Huskies (both current and alumnae) participated in Under-23s, European Championships and World Cup events all over Europe in the summer of 2018. In 2019, nine UW women competed at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships with four earning medals.
Farooq started to build her UW legacy in her first season. The UW's 2017 NCAA title was the Huskies' fourth and their first since 2001. It also marked the first time that a coach had won the NCAA Rowing Championship in her first year as coach at the winning school and, thanks to having won the NCAA crown as Stanford head coach in 2009, Farooq also became the first coach ever to win the championship with two different programs.
And while the NCAA title was clearly the top of the list of accomplishments in 2016-17, there were others, as the Huskies swept the Pac-12 Championships and Farooq and her staff both won the CRCA national awards.
A two-time Olympian, Farooq came to Conibear Shellhouse in the summer of 2016 after 10 seasons as head coach at Stanford. The CRCA National Coach of the Year in 2009, she had also been named the CRCA West Region Coach of the Year in 2009 and the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in both 2008 and 2014.
In her final event in charge of the Cardinal, at the 2016 NCAA regatta at Lake Natoma, Farooq led the Cardinal to a fourth-place overall finish, one point ahead of the fifth-place Huskies. The Stanford varsity eight finished third in the grand final, just a couple of feet ahead of fourth-place Brown.
A 2014 inductee into the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame, for her eight-year career as a U.S. coxswain, the University of Wisconsin graduate has built a reputation for developing high-level rowers. Under her leadership, 14 of Farooq's rowers have gone on to compete at the under-23 or senior World Championships, including two Olympians, winning 27 medals, 15 gold.
A total of 28 Stanford rowers during her tenure were named CRCA All-America. At Stanford, Farooq coached Elle Logan, an NCAA champion (2009), three-time world champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012, both in the U.S. eight) and the Pac-12 Women's Rower of the Century.
Also under Farooq, 138 Cardinal rowers earned Academic All-Pac-12 and 74 were named CRCA Scholar-Athletes.
Farooq served as a coxswain for the United States National Team women's eight from 1989 to 1996 and first competed at the Olympics at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. At the 1996 Games in Atlanta, she was the U.S. captain.
As an international coxswain, she won three silver medals at World Championship regattas, in 1990, 1993 and 1994, and her international career reached its pinnacle in 1995, when her U.S. eight won the World Championship in Finland, the first-ever world title for a United States women's eight.
Farooq began her career as a coxswain as a freshman at Wisconsin in 1984, winning a national championship in the JV8 in 1986 and eventually serving as captain and earning team MVP honors as a senior. Thanks to her exploits at Wisconsin, with the U.S. National Team and as a coach, Farooq was named to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
A native of Waupun, Wis., Farooq has served as a television commentator for NBC Universal for the last four Olympic games and, along with her husband, has produced instructional DVDs for coaching coxswains. She earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Wisconsin in 1988.
