Courtesy photo Escanaba’s Maddy Theut (above pictured with Big Ten Conference banner and in her Hawkeye rowing uniform) is majoring in psychology and minoring in human relations at the University of Iowa. The sophomore to be in 2018-2019 has goals to become a child psychologist.

ESCANABA — 2017 Escanaba High School graduate Maddy Theut played three years of varsity basketball for the Eskymos and also a year of tennis, volleyball and track at EHS.

How did the participation in those high school sports lead her into the unknown of NCAA Division I rowing at the University of Iowa?

“I found out about rowing at my freshman orientation where they offered a fair and you could sign up for organizations and that is where I found the rowing booth. I found out it was a Division 1 rowing team and that three of the four girls (at the booth) were walk-ons,” said Theut.

“They asked me about my high school sports background and encouraged me to attend the tryouts starting in August.”

And Maddy competed at those tryouts and made the team roster as a freshman (one of 62 student-athletes listed on the Iowa Athletics web site women’s rowing 2017-2018 roster).

The Hawkeyes are an NCAA Division I top 20 program that finished 11th at the NCAA championships in 2018 scoring a school-record 69 team points at the NCAA’s.

Iowa rowing head coach Andrew Carter has been in Iowa City since 2013 following two head coaching positions building top 20 programs at Miami (Fla.) and at Clemson.

Theut says training and participation with the Iowa rowing program is a huge challenge.

The former Eskymo also credits her family and others for the opportunities at Iowa.

” I wouldn’t be able to do rowing if I didn’t have the support of my parents, teammates and coaches. It’s an individual sport but it’s ultimately a team sport because you have to function together to win,” said Theut.