The Iowa rowing team has a new home — the P. Sue Beckwith Boathouse.

Days from completion, the boathouse is a state-of-the-art facility that cost the university approximately $7.2 million to complete. Located along the Iowa River in Terrell Mill Park, across from Mayflower Residence Hall, it will house the largest women’s athletic team at Iowa.

Head rowing coach Mandi Kowal said she is thrilled and thankful for the new facility. She knew the complex was going to be fantastic when complete, but it still surpassed her expectations by a wide margin.

She said she thinks the building is a statement of how committed the university is to the rowing program.

“I think it multiplies the meaning of the program to the institution,” Kowal said. “I think it’s one of the best in the country in terms of functionality, how it looks, the use for the rowing team, and in terms of the size.”

The 20,000-square-foot boathouse is flood proof and includes a massive ergometer training room — an area filled with indoor weight machines used to emulate watercraft rowing. It’s most important feature though, is the state-of-the-art rowing tank that allows the Iowa rowers to train inside.

The rowing tank room aims to simulate moving river water. Many facilities around the country posses a tank room where the only movement of the water results from the rowers oars.

With the water moving by itself, rather than strictly in response to athletes’ movements, it provides better, more realistic training opportunities.

Before moving into this boathouse, the rowing team had to practice at multiple facilities around campus. Having a central location eliminates traveling and benefits the program immensely.

Senior associate director of athletics Jane Meyer said this facility is a blessing for the rowing squad. Before, the Hawkeyes had nothing. Now, they have one of the best facilities in the country.

“They didn’t even have a bathroom,” Meyer said. “They’ve been disadvantaged from a very significant standpoint to this point.”

Junior varsity rower Megan Erickson said the boathouse will be vital on the recruiting front because the Beckwith Boathouse proves how serious rowing is to the university.

“This is a huge bonus for recruiting because if you have two schools that are exactly the same, academic-wise and athletic-wise … but one has a state-of-the-art facility and the other doesn’t, the athlete is probably going to choose the new state-of-the-art facility,” Erickson said.

Before building the boathouse, university officials traveled to the East coast, where the sport of rowing is more prominent, reviewing nine schools’ boathouses in two days. The Beckwith Boathouse is a combination of the best things those facilities possessed.

Kowal said it’s unreal that after 15 years of being the rowing coach the program now owns such a grand facility.

“There’s a sense of pride immediately that you get when walking into something with the quality of this facility,” she said.