Out of the water, into the boat

Paige Guggenbiller came into her senior season expecting her competitive athletic career to end with the 2024 track season.

A suggestion from her swim coach and a visit to a Division I college later, she was hooked on keeping it going.

Guggenbiller signed her national letter of intent to become an Ohio State Buckeye as a part of the women’s rowing team on Monday.

“Originally, I didn’t want to go for any sports,” said Guggenbiller, a three-sport athlete that played volleyball, swam and ran track. “That was the plan all fall. I was kind of burnt out being a three-sport athlete.”

Despite her plan, Mindy Bubp approached Guggenbiller to gauge her interest in being a collegiate rower during a workout. The FRHS senior was interested by the idea and Bubp got to work.

Bubp explained that she previously learned that rowing coaches often look for multi-sport athletes through Rachel Kaup, who got recruited onto the Duquesne University rowing team after she got to campus. She also mentioned that Ohio State has sent out emails with recommendation forms for these athletes with good work ethics to coaches.

“I’ve done it a couple of times before,” Bubp said. “I kind of know what the rowing team is looking for from what I’ve heard from the Kaup family.”

Two big reasons why Kaup found Guggenbiller to be a good fit for rowing are her physic, noting Guggenbiller’s long arms, broad shoulders and good upper-body strength as well as the speed in which she learned to swim.

After only picking up the sport her sophomore year of high school, Guggenbiller competed on the 200-yard medley relay that made it to state in 2023.

“Knowing that she was able to pick it up quickly and become such an asset to us in such a short time as a swimmer, I felt that also would help her in switching to a new sport like rowing,” Bubp said. “She’s very driven and goal oriented. … She’s very self motivated so I felt like she’d be a good fit.”

While Bubp found Guggenbiller to be a good fit and she had some interest in becoming a rower, she still had to be convinced.

Assistant coach Michaela Nordhaus took care of that.

Nordhaus, a former OSU rower who took a similar path as Guggenbiller, took the FRHS senior on the campus tour during the recruiting process. Guggenbiller mentioned it was the efforts of Nordhaus during the visit that officially hooked her into becoming a Buckeye.

“They really cared about their athletes,” Guggenbiller said. “It didn’t matter if you’re on the novice team or the varsity team, they really cared for you as an individual and want you to be at your best. … Even though they are a huge school, they still wanted me specifically, which made me feel very special in that manner.”

For her first year, Guggenbiller will walk on to the novice team. After graduation and more players drop out to focus more on school, she will be moved up to the varsity team and go on scholarship.

She plans to major in marketing, while minoring in real estate, with the goal of getting her real estate license the summer after graduation or earlier if possible.

At the pinnacle of Guggenbiller’s high school athletics career, she has swam in the state tournament, ran the 4x100-meter relay at the state track tournament and made it to the district tournament in volleyball. Guggenbiller is looking forward to more experiences like these when she joins the team and gets to compete for a Division I school.

“I’m excited for the meets,” she said. “I’ve been in a few bigger meets for volleyball and the state tournaments for track and swim, but I’m really excited to just see all the athletes and I think it would be a cool experience getting to see that upper-level athleticism and be a part of it.”

Guggenbiller mentioned that she expects it to be weird living more independently. After growing up in a family of 10, she hasn’t been on her own before until she makes the two-hour move east to Columbus.

While the new situation will create some nerves for Guggenbiller, she isn’t scared about joining the team in a sport she hasn’t experienced before, but is rather excited.

“I have no experience, but I’m not scared about it,” Guggenbiller said. “I have the ability to pick up things pretty quickly. I feel like the coaches know what they’re doing and they take the time to teach their athletes, so I have no apprehension.”