SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga women's rowing first year head coach Marisa Wortman has announced two additions to her staff in assistant coaches Clare Manthey and Sam Casto.
Manthey, a captain her senior year, rowed from 2013 to 2017 at Gonzaga, winning two West Coast Conference Championships in the second varsity eight boat and competing in two NCAA National Championships, taking 19th with the second varsity eight in 2017 and 2015. In 2016, she won a WCC Championship and finished 19th at the NCAA Championships with the varsity four.
She spent the 2018 season coaching at Holy Names Academy in Seattle and coached at Rose City Rowing in Portland in the summer of 2017. Manthey also volunteered with Americorps in Seattle with Neighborhood Care, the largest provider of medical care to the low-income population of Seattle, and she specifically worked with the homeless clinics.
Manthey, originally from Portland, graduated from Gonzaga in 2017, majoring in psychology with a minor in biology, earning the Dean's Scholarship all four years.
Casto, also a senior captain in 2015-16, recorded an outstanding rowing career at Virginia, being named a two-time CRCA All-American and two-time CRCA All-Region selection. She was All-ACC and won two ACC Championships with the varsity eight and one with the second varsity eight, and finished third and fifth with the varsity eight, and third with the second varsity eight, in three NCAA Championships appearances.
She coached the Harvard Lightweight Women in 2016-17, leading the third varsity eight to the gold at the Eastern Sprints in 2017.
Originally from Dallas, Pa., Casto graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering and went on to complete a graduate certificate from the Institute for Rowing Leadership in 2017. In 2014, she raced in the U-23 World Championships in Varese, Italy in the single, and then competed at the U-23s again in 2015, racing quad in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The Bulldogs will announce their fall schedule in the coming weeks.
