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Meet Our Staff
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Savannah Wilson
Executive Director
Savannah grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she competitively rowed for Three Rivers Junior Rowing. Continuing her love for the sport, Savannah briefly rowed for Florida Institute of Technology during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many regulations on social gatherings, Savannah threw herself into her academics, receiving both her Bachelors and Masters from Florida Tech in Applied Behavior Analysis and Organizational Behavior Management.
During her academic career, Savannah became the assistant performance coach for the Rocket League esports team where she focused on sustainable behavior change through systematic changes and a reinforcement-based coaching style.
Beyond her love for rowing, Savannah is an avid reader well on her way to beating her goal of 100 books completed in this calendar year. Savannah is also currently in the process of finishing her thesis manuscript titled "The Effects of Vibrotactile Feedback on the Rowing Stroke." Feel free to ask her about her favorite book or her thesis...if you have an extra hour to spare!
Cecilia Krause
Head Coach & Programs Director
Cecilia started her rowing career as a coxswain for Glastonbury High School in 2013, and fell even more in love with the sport during her time at Seattle Pacific University. Her favorite memories of rowing in college are finishing first at both WIRA Championships and Opening Day regatta in back to back weekends in 2019. After college, she joined the Lake Washington Rowing Club's competitive team, where she is currently serving as one of the team captains. She hopped in the coaches' launch for the first time in March of 2022 as an Assistant Coach for the NSD High School programs. She worked as the Boathouse and Equipment Manager at the Kenmore Community Boathouse from March 2023 - August 2024, and spent the summer of 2024 as Kenmore Community Rowing Club's youth programming manager, developing and overseeing the youth summer rowing camps.
She has a passion for creating a safe and inclusive environment for young people to try out the sport she fell in love with. When she's not coaching, fixing a boat, or coxing, Cecilia can be found adding to her ever growing collection of houseplants and dad jokes.
Che Tillinghast
Assistant Coach & Operations Assistant
Che grew up in White Salmon Washington, surrounded by water, he developed a love for whitewater kayaking. Unfortunately, a fractured L4 vertebrae in 2021 saw the end of his kayaking days, and he was left with 6 months of recovery and no sport to live by. Joining Puget Sound Crew in the fall of 2024, Che found that rowing wasn’t only a path to improve his fitness, but a way to come out of his athletic and mental slump post back injury. As a
coach, he hopes to create opportunities allowing others to find rowing and change their lives for the better. Some of his favorite memories from Puget Sound Crew are racing three times in one day at the WIRA championships, coxing the Men’s Novice 8+ to a win in the petite final, and watching the Women's 1st Varsity 8+ and 2nd Varsity 8+ compete at the 2026 NCAA
Championships.
Che has always loved filmmaking and photography, and if he’s not on the water, you will probably find him behind a camera. Che hopes to write and direct a feature film at some point in his life. His favorite movie is any Ryan Gosling movie, specifically La La Land or First Man.
Additionally, Che plays seven instruments (decently), and just like filmmaking, he hopes to write
a full length musical in his lifetime.
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Mia Carter
Assistant Coach & Operations Assistant
Growing up in southern Indiana, Mia was very active growing up. She found rowing her freshman year at the University of Washington through their campus walk-on program. While at UW, she briefly coxed before transitioning to a program assistant role. The highlights of her UW career include winning Head of the Lake in the Women’s Collegiate JV 8+, as well as contributing to Washington sweeping their first Big Ten Regatta. Mia first started coaching at Pocock Youth Rowing as an assistant coach for the summer learn to row camps. Outside of rowing, Mia’s mission is to eat good food with even better company and explore new trails.
Jon Harttrup
Head Middle School Coach
Despite hailing from the UK, an island nation with a strong rowing tradition, Jon came to rowing later in life, taking a Learn To Row class right here at Renton in 2021 on a whim, and he never left! He has rowed with the RRC Masters program ever since, competing in any and all local regattas he can get to. As his experience in a rowing shell grew, he's discovered joy in coaching, starting out teaching adult Learn To Row classes, progressing into helping out with the High School program, and currently coaching the Middle School program.
Jon is a lifelong outdoorsman, who's at his happiest "outdoors and working hard," and brings an almost evangelical enthusiasm for "Type 2 fun" to all he does. He found his geographical soulmate in the Pacific Northwest with its wide variety of geography, from rowing, paddling and swimming in lakes, to backpacking, hiking and snowshoeing in the mountains. When the weather is gnarly enough to keep him indoors, he is a keen practitioner, advocate and coach of kettlebells, steel mace and heavy clubs as fun and efficient tools for busy folk to achieve their fitness goals.
Christian Lamp
Assistant Masters Coach
Christian is a PNW native that grew up a stone's throw away from Green Lake. When his mom decided she needed him out of the house after school, she signed him up for Green Lake Crew and he was off... and racing year-round. He stroked the men's varsity light 8+ and went to Jr Nationals participating in the men's open weight double and pair rowing for Ed Maxwell. One of his fondest memories is taking home the silver medal in the pair as a scrawny lightweight with his friend Andres. Christian continued his rowing career at WSU.
In his spare time Christian is a techy, tinkerer and maker who has never strayed far from the water. He avidly races sailboats, competing across Puget Sound in his s2 7.9 and is also a husband and father. While his daughter is a Soccer player first, Christian introduced her to rowing at RRC in the summer of 2025 which reinvigorated his love for the sport. He has since bought a mahogany Levator Flight racing shell and continues to work back into racing shape.
Thinking back on all the lessons rowing has provided him over the years, and the difference a great coach makes, he wanted to give back to the community as a coach. As such, he spends a lot of time researching new drills to help the Intermediate Masters reach their full potential and hopes to make the kind of impact his HS coach made on him years ago.
Kent McCleary
Volunteer Masters Sculling Coach
Kent McCleary rowed for Washington State Men's Crew, All-PAC-10 and raced in Istanbul, Turkey. Kent rowed and taught sculling at Carillon Point [Kirkland] Rowing Club, the Wenatchee Row and Paddle Club and the Twin Falls [Idaho] Solo Bocce Ball, Tiddlywinks and Sculling Club. He returned to sculling on Lake Washington in 2002 and in 2006 helped found Renton Rowing and to start Erg Ed. Kent coaches masters scullers and teaches safety at RRC. Kent is also the Chair of RRC's Board of Directors and leads the Safety Committee. He teaches English as a Second Language at Lindbergh High School in Renton and acts as the staff sponsor of the Lindbergh High School Rowing Club.