Texas assistant, 4-time national champion Mara Allen named UCF rowing coach

UCF Athletics dipped into its new conference, the Big 12, to find its next rowing coach.

Mara Allen, who won two national championships as an assistant at Texas and an athlete at California, was named the fourth head coach in UCF rowing program history Wednesday night.

“I am very excited to be joining Knight Nation,” Allen said in a statement. “It’s clear director of athletics Terry Mohajir and the UCF Athletics staff are very supportive of the rowing team and want the best for their student-athletes.”

Allen comes to the Orlando school after eight seasons as an assistant coach at Texas, spending this past year as the associate head coach. During her tenure in Austin, the Longhorns won back-to-back NCAA championships (2021, ’22) and eight straight Big 12 titles.

With Allen on staff, Texas finished inside the top 10 at the NCAA tournament in each of her seasons with the program, most recently finishing fourth this past year.

Under Allen’s guidance, seven Texas athletes claimed Big 12 Rower of the Year selections and four Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors. In total, 50 athletes earned Big 12 All-Conference accolades and more than 200 garnered Big 12 Academic honors since her arrival in Austin.

As a rower, she trained with the U.S. Women’s National Rowing Team from 2008-12 and helped the team win a gold medal at the ’09 World Rowing Championships.

A member of the Varsity Eight all four years in school at Cal under coach Dave O’Neill, Allen helped guide the Bears to NCAA championships in her freshman (’05) and sophomore (’06) seasons.

“We’re really excited to welcome coach Allen to UCF,” Mohajir said. “She has coached and competed at the highest level, winning a gold medal with the U.S. Team, two national championships as one of the top assistants in the country and two as a student-athlete.

“Those experiences, combined with her familiarity with the Big 12 and her ability to communicate and motivate, will make her the perfect fit for our rowing program.”

The hiring comes two months after long-time UCF rowing coach Becky Cramer resigned in April following a leave of absence.

Prior to joining the staff at Texas, Allen served as the women’s freshman rowing coach at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in San Francisco and as an assistant coach at the U.S. Rowing Development Sculling Camp in the summer of 2014.

Now she will guide the Knights into their inaugural season in the Big 12 — a conference she is more than familiar with following her time with the Longhorns.

“Terry’s vision for the future of UCF Athletics is impressive and I believe the rowing team is poised to do great things,” Allen said. “There is a lot of work to be done and I am excited for all the challenges ahead.”

Email Jason Beede at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @therealBeede.