SRA Stories: Molly Gallaher

During her sophomore year of high school, Molly Gallaher played volleyball for her high school team and a competitive club team. An ACL tear forced her to stop playing. “It was about halfway through my 6 month recovery that I realized volleyball was out the window,” Gallaher said. It was then that she turned to Sammamish Rowing Association (SRA). Her doctor suggested trying rowing because it was low impact and her aunt had rowed at the University of Washington, so the sport was somewhat familiar to her. It didn’t take long for the rowing bug to bite and for Gallaher to fall in love with the sport.

Molly rowing with the UW team with the Seattle skyline in the background

Molly (second from front of photo) on Lake Sammamish for an alumni row

There wasn’t just one reason why Gallaher fell in love with the sport. She attributes part of her passion for rowing to the community she met at Sammamish. “The community was amazing, but I also fell in love with the ability to push myself as an athlete through the sport. Being amongst other women who had that same drive was inspiring,” she said. Gallaher rowed at SRA for part of her junior and all of her senior year of high school and was coached by Kelley Pope and Whitney Freygang. She made many friends- some of who she still stays in regular contact with today! ​

Those friends helped her form one of her favorite memories at SRA. During her senior year on the team, Gallaher was in the junior women’s V8+ that qualified for nationals. “It was the first time that the women’s V8+ had qualified in quite a few years. Before that, it was always the men’s V8+ that qualified. We were so excited to qualify the women’s V8+ and prove that Sammamish’s junior women’s team was just as competitive and dominant as the men’s”. ​

Molly and her UW teammate

Following high school rowing, Gallaher decided to attend the University of Washington (UW). Even before she started rowing, she knew that she wanted to attend UW for academics. After her rowing career started to get serious, she started to consider rowing in college. She got into UW without any help from the rowing team and then began to talk to coaches, and was eventually recruited onto the team. It would turn out that Gallaher would go on to become an incredible collegiate rower. Her list of accomplishments include winning 3 PAC-12 championships, an NCAA championship, and being invited to the US U23 national team selection camp this summer. ​

Photos from NCAA's

“Rowing in college really blew me away at first. The overall intensity was a huge step up from high school rowing. I didn’t think I was going to be able to push myself much further than I did in high school, but as soon as I got to college, my whole potential and mindset was opened up,” she said while comparing high school and collegiate rowing. “I definitely thought there would be other aspects of my life in college, but it’s mostly school and rowing, and I honestly don’t have a problem with that!”

College rowing is often characterized by tight schedules. Even though her time is predominantly spent either exclusively in the boathouse or in the classroom, she wouldn’t have had it any other way. The friendships, victories, and memories are all worth the sacrifices to a rower.

“On the final day of NCs I kept thinking ‘what’s happening, is this real?’ But of course it was real- we had been through so much together and grew so much over the course of the year,” Gallaher said, “we weren’t expecting that outcome, but no one was surprised that this group of women could pull it off”. The Huskies ended up winning the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight, and Varsity Four to sweep the championship for the second time in three years. “I don’t think anything will ever be able to compare to that [sweeping NCAAs]. It was so special to have this final product of what we had been working for, especially alongside the people who matter so much to you. It still doesn’t feel real” 

Molly and her UW Women's Team celebrating their sweep of the NCAA's.

Overall, rowing for the Huskies has been a dream come true for Gallaher. “It’s surreal looking back at the time that I didn’t think I was good enough to row for UW,” she said. “I looked up to the older girls on the team my freshman year, and looking where I am now it is honestly a little unbelievable. These past three years have had so many ups and downs, but at the end of the day I feel so lucky and blessed to be where I am. I absolutely love the team.”

Tea Federspeil (left) and Molly (right) at UW. The two were pair partners in the 2016 Sammamish Women's V8.

Aside from rowing, Gallaher is a dedicated student. As a biochemistry major, she hopes to do laboratory research in the medical field once she graduates. Last year she got involved with the “Electric Launch Project” with other members of her team. The project is a student led grant initiative with hopes to increase the environmental sustainability of the rowing program at UW. The project’s first goal is to convert the coaching launches from gas to electric. The overall goal of this project that the student athletes created was to make their program more sustainable and environmentally friendly, while also starting a conversation about sustainability in the rowing community. 

Gallaher and other teammates, both men and women, spent time last year writing the grant proposal and ended up receiving one of the largest grant sums from the University’s Sustainability fund. The men’s and women’s rowing teams will each receive an electric motor, and Gallaher and her team are looking for more ways to bring sustainability to the rowing community. Another aspect of their project is outreach. “We had the opportunity to talk at a Sammamish Rowing Association board meeting about our project. Electric launches might not be feasible at the time for all rowing programs, but starting a conversation about environmental sustainability is a great first step. It’s been really cool to be a part of the conversation, and even cooler that SRA was also involved. UW and SRA are both leaders in the northwest rowing community and I’m proud to be associated with both programs,” Gallaher said.

Fellow SRA junior rowing alumni, Tennyson Federspiel, helped Gallaher and her project partners present at the Sammamish boathouse. It is special to see our alumni embracing one of the core values of SRA, thoughtful stewardship, beyond their time at the Hod Fowler Boathouse. It just goes to show that we coach not just amazing rowers, but incredible leaders too.

Rowing has provided so many opportunities for Gallaher- something she is very aware of. She hopes to give back to the sport she loves, and when asked if she had any advice to offer, she said: “I think if I had advice to give to younger athletes it would be to not set limits for yourself. I realize it’s easy for me to say now that I’m rowing at UW and coming off of a national championship, but there was a time not so long ago that I thought I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to row at UW.” 

“I am so thankful I had the experience of going through SRA- mainly being introduced to the sport and community at SRA. The support and coaching staff at SRA is so incredible. The community at SRA pushed me to take my rowing career as far as I could.” Gallaher finished with. 

Congratulations on your incredible accomplishments, Molly! SRA is so proud of the leader and the person you are now, both in and out of the boat. We can’t wait to see what your senior year of college holds for you!