Sara Den Besten Collins

Sara Den Besten Collins

Player Profile

Hall of Fame:
2009

Graduated:
1996

Sport: Rowing
Sara Den Besten Collins is widely regarded as the finest women's rower ever to compete at Bucknell, and by rowing competitively year-round, she is credited with helping to raise the commitment level of the program. As a senior, Den Besten became the first member of the rowing program to earn the Christy Mathewson Award as the top senior athlete in her class. That year, she was a member of the lightweight four that won at the U.S. Nationals, and the following two years she stroked the lightweight eight and quad to gold at the Nationals. She also qualified for the World Indoor Rowing Championships, an erg event, and helped the Bison varsity four to a bronze medal at the Champion International Collegiate Regatta. The summer prior to her senior year, Den Besten won the senior lightweight double sculls at the Canadian Royal Henley Regatta.

After graduation, Den Besten became the second Bucknell alumnus in any sport to win a medal at a world championship when she earned a silver medal in the lightweight four at the 1998 World Rowing Championship in Cologne, Germany. A year later, she won gold in the same boat at the World Championships in Canada.
(Bucknell Hall of Fame Class of 2009)