Washington has won rowing's heavyweight Oarsman award both years

Seattle Fitness Magazine · 27 Sep 2026

• 2 of 2heavyweight oarsman awards
• ≤5donovan's pre-tryout erg sessions
• 22ndvarsity eight ira title

The heavyweight award has gone to Washington both years

On July 2, 2026, the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association named three winners of "The Oarsman," and the Division I heavyweight award went to Washington senior Lyle Donovan, a walk-on from Milton, Georgia, who arrived on campus never having touched an oar.

A year earlier the same honor went to Washington's Logan Ullrich, a New Zealander who came to UW on scholarship and took a year away to win Olympic silver in Paris. Washington's athletics site dates the heavyweight award's first year to 2025, when Ullrich won it. Donovan's win makes it two for two.

Donovan had never rowed before Montlake

Donovan grew up in Milton running track and cross country.

His father had rowed at Wisconsin, in the program's 1990 IRA championship varsity eight, but the son never had. In the fall of 2022, an email from UW frosh coach Sergio Espinoza got him to a walk-on tryout. "No more than five sessions on an erg prior to that tryout, and it was a warm up and straight into a 10k," Donovan recalled in UW's SWEEP Magazine in 2024. He remembered "standing awkwardly" on his first day of orientation. He made the team anyway, one of four walk-ons selected for the 2023 season.

He went on to win IRA gold in the second varsity eight in 2024 and 2025, was named IRCA Novice of the Year for 2024, and in 2025 won the United States' first gold in the men's four at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. When the award came, head coach Michael Callahan put the arc in two lines in UW's announcement: "He is a walk-on and former track runner, having arrived at Washington without ever touching an oar," and "First to the shellhouse, last to leave, steady when the racing got hard."

Ullrich took the other road in

Ullrich came to Washington on the program's Michael Hess Scholarship in 2022-23.

He spent the 2023-24 school year away, training with New Zealand's national team, and helped its four to Olympic silver in Paris in 5:49.88. He came back for 2024-25 and led the Huskies to their 21st IRA national championship, and in July 2025 IRCA named him its first Division I heavyweight winner.

Callahan framed that one around a word the program leans on: "At Washington, we spend a lot of time talking about what it takes to be a true 'oarsman,'" he said in UW's release that July.

The water they share

Washington's crews train out of Conibear Shellhouse on Lake Washington, and their home course since 1960 has been the Montlake Cut.

The 2,000-meter course starts near Webster Point in Lake Washington, runs east to west through the Cut and finishes near the mouth of Portage Bay. "Fans line both sides of the Cut and the overhanging Montlake Bridge, creating an atmosphere akin to rowing through a stadium," the program's own site says. This May 2, the varsity eight beat Great Britain there in the 40th Windermere Cup.

The Seattle Times reported that Donovan was the first walk-on to row in UW's top boat at the IRA championship since Madison Molitor in 2019. After the varsity eight's 22nd IRA title on May 31, Callahan spoke about that senior class. "There are a lot of seniors in that crew and they've put in a lot of work," he said, and later: "I told them last night I'm sad I won't be able to watch them row anymore."

The walk-on door is still open

Washington rowing still says it takes walk-ons.

"We have an open door recruiting philosophy," the program's website reads. "Whether you have rowed for years or excelled in another sport (and would like to walk-on), we want to talk to you."

The steps it lists are to email the men's contact, Nate Goodman, and fill out the recruiting questionnaire. UW's academic calendar has fall instruction starting September 30. Donovan came to the boathouse from the track, on a coach's email. He is the reigning heavyweight Oarsman.