BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — University of Michigan women’s water polo head coach Cassie Churnside is the guest on the latest edition of the Conqu’ring Heroes podcast hosted by Jon Jansen.
Churnside led the Wolverines to a 22-9 regular season record and the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship at Princeton University on Friday-Sunday, April 28-30 in her first year at the helm of the Maize & Blue.
She arrived in Ann Arbor, Mic., during to the summer after eight seasons as the assistant coach at Harvard University. During her time at Harvard, Churnside helped coach both the men’s and women’s teams.
During the 2022 women’s season, Churnside helped lead the team to its first-ever CWPA Championship game appearance en route to Harvard head coach Ted Minnis earning CWPA Coach of the Year for the second time with the women’s team. The team went on to post a 23-7 overall record, the second-highest single-season win total in program history. The seven losses also marked the fewest in varsity program history, barring the shortened 2020 season. In addition, the Crimson boasted a quartet of All-Conference honorees, including Zoe Banks, Inde Halligan, Grace Thawley and Evan Tingler. All four student-athletes also gained Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America honors, including a spot on the third team for Halligan.
Churnside helped guide the Crimson men to a historic season in 2019, earning an undefeated 27-0 record through regular-season play and breaking program records for best start to a season and most consecutive wins. In its sixth straight 20-win season, Harvard defeated Princeton to become the new Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Champion. In addition, four members of the Crimson — seniors Charlie Owens and Austin Sechrest, junior Dennis Blyashov and sophomore Noah Hodge — earned first team All-NWPC honors, while Owens was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the conference.
Churnside, an Orange, Calif., native, helped to lead the Stanford Cardinal to the 2011 and 2012 national titles. She graduated from Stanford University in 2012 with a bachelor of arts in communication.
About Jon Jansen: A first team All-America offensive tackle and Academic All-America honoree in 1998, Jansen set Michigan’s school record by starting all 50 games during his four-year playing career at right tackle. He received Michigan’s Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1999 for his academic, athletic and community service accomplishments. Jansen was a two-time captain who led the Wolverines to back-to-back conference titles (1997-98) and was a leader on the 1997 national championship team. A two-time All-Big Ten first team performer, Jansen was named the 1998 Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year. Jansen was chosen by the Washington Redskins in the second round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He played 11 seasons in the NFL for the Redskins and Detroit Lions.
