Hunter Koenigsfeld is one of two student-athletes to trade her lifelong sport for rowing this summer.
By Megan Sprengeler
The Iowa rowing team will add yet another student-athlete to its roster for the fall.
Trading her running shoes for oars, Hunter Koenigsfeld has decided to make the leap from the women’s cross-country team to the rowing team.
In her first year on the cross-country team, Koenigsfeld enjoyed great success and thrived in the Hawkeye atmosphere.
“I saw myself improve immensely in my pace,” Koenigsfeld said. “What used to be considered ‘fast pace’ changed to being painfully slow.”
Though she enjoyed the challenge of running cross-country at the Division-1 level brought to the table, she needed a change in scenery.
The Cedar Rapids native was faced with recurring injuries, but that didn’t stop her. But in January, when she was hit by a car, she decided to hang up the sport.
Though she left the sport she once held so dearly, she found the transition to be enlightening.
“I learned how to be happy with myself,” Koenigsfeld said. “And I learned to feel good about myself through who I was, not how good I was at a sport. But I was still missing something. I missed being part of something bigger than myself. I have a desire to be a leader and help teammates [along with me] reach maximum potential.”
Koenigsfeld made the switch to rowing at a rather vigorous period in the team’s training, but she hasn’t let the challenges and obstacles defeat her.
“Overall, the team [members] have the right mindset when it comes to taking their sport seriously,” Koenigsfeld said. “One impressive aspect of the rowing [Hawkeyes] is the respect that they have for their coach and how they express that respect through their choices in extracurricular activities, which is something I hadn’t seen before. When I met the [rowers] and learned their different types of personalities, I knew they were my people.”
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In her first weeks on the team, she was pushed outside of her comfort zone and into the small one-person and two-person boats that expose every fault in technique.
Koenigsfeld joins a select group of squad members who have been training to race in the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, Aug. 6-13 in St. Catharine’s, Ontario.
Without hesitation, she has surrendered to the sport and has seen progress consistently as a result.
“When you wake up at 5:30 a.m. six days a week, it is easy to not want to get out of bed in the morning,” she said. “But when I arrive at practice, I am only greeted with people who genuinely love to be there. Their conversations are bright and entertaining, not negative; I love that. This kind of attitude is what is needed to be successful in a Division-1 sport.”
The concept of rowing intrigues Koenigsfeld. Because it requires immense synchronization with teammates; it is an extremely team-oriented sport.
“It’s incredibly hard,” she said. “Which makes it extremely rewarding. Challenges make experiences more meaningful, and rowing is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done.”
The tradeoff between the grind and the progress isn’t all that Koenigsfeld looks forward to, there’s a quintessential aspect of the sport that is especially motivating.
“I am mostly looking forward to spending time with the team,” she said. “[They are] so grounded and have worked hard to have gained their designated spot on the team. I want to see everyone improve. There is something special about going through challenges with people who are willing to work hard.”
(The writer is a member of the Hawkeye rowing team.)
