TACOMA, Wash. - Pacific Lutheran University women's rowing student-athlete Lena Flanagan has a full plate. When not on the water with the four-time Northwest Conference Champion Lutes, Flanagan can be seen on the mat, honing her wrestling skills where she recently won a national championship at club nationals and is a member of the US Junior National Team. 

A social work and sociology double major, Flanagan dedicates all her free time to school and sports. After classes she works on homework before heading to wrestling practice, then does more homework before setting her alarm for early morning rowing practice. Flanagan believes time management is the key to success, especially when she travels for wrestling.

In sixth grade, Flanagan was a soccer player. Her mom told her she needed to find another sport for cross training, and dared her to try wrestling. Flanagan accepted the challenge.

"I liked it okay at first. I only did it at school to begin with, but by the time I was a freshman in high school I knew it was the sport I wanted to do," Flanagan said.

When Flanagan decided to pursue wrestling, she started going to camps and training with a club team. Last year, she made it onto the Junior National Team and the development circuit with Team USA. Flanagan travels often to do three to four day camps with the national team and Olympic circuit, venturing overseas for competition.

Already one of the four members of the PLU women's club wrestling team, Flanagan decided to join rowing this fall as a first year. She received an email from the rowing coach, and joined because it was good cross training. The rowing practices are in the morning so they don't conflict with wrestling, and the movements help with cardio and upper back strength.

Although Flanagan doesn't think rowing will ever be her primary sport, she likes having a team of 40 girls to help motivate her to work out every morning. This season, Flanagan has competed in two regattas for the Lutes. She was in the novice eight boat at the PLU Invitational on March 9 and was on the Lutes' novice four "B" boat that finished second at the Mills College regatta in California on March 30. 

"I like the team comradery of rowing. It's competitive in a different way than wrestling, more like your traditional sports teams. It's not as individualized as much as wrestling, because in wrestling your success doesn't depend on another individual," Flanagan said.

Flanagan has been training with the PLU club wrestling coach, Kyle Foster, since she was 12 years old and has wrestled on his club for eight years. College training is more intensive and purposeful, meant to help athletes break down and master the basics. Wrestling is technically a winter sport from November to March, but preseason and postseason training makes it a year long sport.

For athletes like Flanagan who plan to compete at national and international competitions, the season goes through the summer as well. This winter Flanagan came away from the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Championships in March as a national champion in her weight class, earning wins over wrestlers from both the University of Maine and the University of Wisconsin en route to the title. 

This upcoming weekend, Flanagan will be competing at the US Open Senior World Team Trials for wrestling. This competition is against athletes in the senior division, which is a division older than Flanagan, but she is excited for the experience and to see where she stands on the scale.

"I'm using this weekend to practice for the Junior National Team Trials in May with women my age. It's my last year to be a junior, which is ages 16-18, so I'll compete in that one and be the oldest, and them I'll compete in U23s, which is the college bracket, and I'll be the youngest," Flanagan said.

Looking ahead, Flanagan plans to study abroad in Chengdu, China during the fall semester and possibly train with the Chinese national team for wrestling. She is excited for future camps and competitions, and her wrestling career at PLU is far from over.