Leading From The Front: Maile Organek '26

6/26/2026

It is not unusual for Princeton student-athletes to accomplish remarkable things over the course of their lives. Its the norm.

Three major accomplishments in under a week, though?

That’s not something that happens all the time. However, it happened for Maile Organek ’26 of the heavyweight rowing team in the final week of May 2026.

On Tuesday, May 26, she received a sociology degree and was commissioned into the United States Army as a second lieutenant by her grandfather.

By Sunday, May 31, she had flown across the country and coxed the Tigers’ second varsity eight to its first gold medal at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta since 1998.

Any one of those accomplishments alone are things to be immensely proud of. Organek developed into an incredible leader for not just the 2V but the entire program and left an impact that will be felt long after her time at Princeton is over.

To put a bow on her time at Princeton, Organek was bestowed the highest honor a coxswain can receive in collegiate rowing; the 2026 Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Coxswain of the Year award.

Growing up just outside of Washington, D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia, Organek’s life has been defined by service. Her grandfather, John Organek, is a retired lieutenant colonel who spent 23 years in the Army, much of it in Korea. After his time in Korea was up, he worked for the Pentagon before getting out of the Army. A civil engineer by trade, he was an engineer officer who commissioned out of Lehigh and participated in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), a college program that combines military leadership and training with academic coursework. Organek’s participation in ROTC at Princeton resulted in her getting commissioned into the Army. She looks up to her grandfather for many reasons, including his strong work ethic. To this day he still works as a civil engineer.

Service has been a generational theme, with Organek’s great grandfather serving in the Navy while her maternal grandfather was also in the military. Organek’s father, Danny, spent part of his childhood in Korea and spent time in the Army himself before going into sales, while her mother, Kelley, is a schoolteacher.

In addition to service, sports were another major presence in Organek’s life. From soccer, to lacrosse, to rugby to wrestling, to tennis to softball, she gave them all a go and swam year-round. From kindergarten through grade 12, Organek was involved in organized sports.

Rowing came into the picture her freshman year of high school, but joining the team took some convincing. Organek still has the email from her mom with the link to sign up.

“I responded to her email that I wasn’t interested and wasn’t going to do it,” said Organek. “I thought that was really funny.”

Her rise to gold medal winning coxswain was an improbable one.

Given her athletic background and natural competitiveness, Organek fell in love with rowing. She was fortunate to live only 10 minutes from her high school’s rowing facility. A rower throughout high school, Organek did not make the switch to being a coxswain until she got to Princeton.

Along with sports, Organek was an avid reader growing up. Originally big into pop sociology, she became interested in reading about global health once she entered high school.

Given that Princeton’s motto is “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity,” the university was a natural fit for Organek. In high school, she travelled with her brother, Tookie, to a lacrosse tournament nearby and immediately fell in love with campus. On top of the beauty of campus, as a kid who valued academics a school like Princeton was always on Organek’s radar. She also applied to the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan, but after getting accepted into Princeton her college decision was an easy one.

Service has always been what I’ve been called to do. That was never a question for me.

Maile Organek

While Organek was focused on academics and ROTC, she figured her rowing career had come to an end.

That was until Matt Smith and Emma Carlisle-Reske came into the picture.

Smith, former heavyweight assistant and now men’s lightweight head coach, and Carlise-Reske, former heavyweight assistant and now assistant director of recreation at Colgate University, were convinced Organek could make a positive impact on the team as a walk on and sold her a grand vision of what would be. One of Smith and Carlise-Reske’s major selling points was that Eleanor Bauer ’23, a female coxswain who walked on as a freshman, had just won a gold medal at the IRA National Championships in the 4+ and that Organek could follow in her footsteps. Organek initially thought they were crazy, and that she would never reach those heights.

Additionally, Smith had a special connection with Organek. Smith was an ROTC cadet a as the University of Wisconsin and earned the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medals for exceptional duty in combat and peacetime operations and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School and Airborne School. Smith had first-hand experience balancing athletics with ROTC and helped convince Organek she could thrive at both.

“He was a very big vote of confidence for me,” said Organek. “He was always in my corner helping me out and convinced me that balancing both was possible.”

After meeting the coaches and rowers along with factoring in Princeton’s facilities, Organek decided joining the team was not an opportunity she could turn down. Her career was a steady progression that culminated in a storybook senior year.

Organek was one of four women on a heavyweight men’s team consisting of 51 rowers her freshman year. Nora Bauer ’23 and Chloe Smith-Frank ’23, two of the senior woman coxswains, immediately took Organek under their wing. She felt right at home from day one.

Head Coach Greg Hughes was also influential in helping her feel comfortable and adjusting to life as a member of the Tigers’ heavyweight rowing team.

“He has a very special ability to acknowledge how unique it is to be a woman on a men’s team,” said Organek. “He’s always been in my corner and had my back. He’s always been proactive about checking in and making sure I was ok with the situation I was in.”

Organek began on the 5V as a freshman, then moved up to the 4V as a sophomore and helped the Tigers win a pair of Petite Finals; first, with the fourth varsity at Eastern Sprints then with the 4+ at the IRA National Championships. She coxed the 3V as a junior in 2025, winning silver at Eastern Sprints and advancing to the Grand Final at the IRA National Championships, where her boat finished fifth. As a senior, it all came together for Organek as she coxed the 2V to gold medals at both Eastern Sprints and the IRA National Championships. Along with it being the 2V’s first gold medal at the IRA National Championships since 1998, it was the Tigers’ first gold in any 8+ boat since 2016. In regular season competition, Organek and the 2V earned victories over Georgetown, La Salle, Temple, Navy, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Columbia, Yale and Brown.

Organek was joined on the 2V by Patrick Shaw, Taeden Landa, Alex Perkins, Ed Nutt, Andrew Wilkinson, Ori Radwin, Aemon Morlan and Andrew Nolan. She credits the incredible leadership on the boat from the upperclassmen, and the ability of the three freshmen to buy into the team culture as keys its success. Organek also believes Sergio Espinoza, who just ended his first season as an assistant coach with the Tigers, was instrumental in the boat’s dominant season.

“Coach Sergio made an immeasurable impact on team culture and how the boat behaved,” proclaimed Organek. “He’s very special as a coach, not only in his technical knowledge of stroke but also his ability to manage personalities.”

In addition to the team’s success her senior year, Organek looks back fondly on the team’s annual training trips to Tampa, Florida. The team would return from break, creating chemistry and bonds that last a lifetime.

While acknowledging the difficulty of balancing ROTC and high-level athletics, Organek encourages those who seek to do both to do so without hesitation. She feels fortunate that her ROTC staff and the heavyweight rowing team’s staff were flexible and accommodating.

Connor Neil ’25, also a coxswain for the heavyweight rowing team that did ROTC, was part of Organek’s support network. He helped guide a path for her and showed what worked and what didn’t when it came to succeeding at both endeavors.

“I’m very lucky to have had this opportunity and to have had people around me that are willing to support it.”

Four years of hard work in the classroom, including her thesis titled “Like a Foreign Land: Immigration Density and Reform UK Support in Post-Brexit England,” was over. Only the IRA National Championships remained, and it was time for graduation, an event where she was fortunate to have all four of her grandparents in attendance.

Getting sworn into the Army by her grandfather was a full-circle moment and one Organek will remember forever.

It was nice that his old uniform still fits. It was very special to share a moment like that; he influenced my decision to go into the military a lot.

Maile Organek

Along with setting an example of service and influencing her to join the military, Organek’s grandfather has been a constant presence in her life. An orienteering enthusiast, Organek looks back fondly on weekend’ spent in the woods with him navigating from point to point. This skillset would prove invaluable later in life when learning land navigation as part of her military training.

As someone leaving college athletics and ROTC, Organek is inspired by how active her grandfather is and aspires to emulate him. Still active in orienteering, he recently stopped by campus to spend time her after an orienteering trip to West Point, New York.

Tuesday, May 26, was nothing short of a whirlwind for Organek. She practiced in the morning, then went to the football stadium to graduate, then to Nassau Hall for photos, then had to change, then went back to Nassau Hall to commission, then went to the boat house to change out of her dress uniform. Organek then got on the bus with the team and flew to Sacramento.

Naturally, one would be mentally and physically drained after that type of day.

Fortunately for Organek, the Tigers’ staff did an exceptional job of balancing practice with time to decompress once the team arrived in California. The team practiced in the morning then had downtime in the afternoon. The strategy paid dividends; along with the 2V’s gold medal, the Tigers finished second in the Ten Eyck standings for most team points while the 1V and 3V won bronze.

The IRA National Championships put an exclamation point on a memorable postseason run for Organek and the Tigers. At Eastern Sprints, which took place in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Sunday, May 17, Princeton won the Rowe Cup for most team points along with gold medals in the 2V, 3V, 4V and 5V along with a silver for the 1V.

The end of her career and time at Princeton was a bittersweet feeling for Organek. Proud of her accomplishments, she’ll miss being a student-athlete immensely. Organek gave it her all as a student-athlete and an ROTC cadet.

The most important thing about Princeton is that you have to make the most of it. I’ve done everything I can to do that.

Maile Organek

The younger female coxswains gravitated to Organek, and her mentorship has transcended her individual competitive goals. She describes Grace Slattery ‘29, also an ROTC cadet and female coxswain, as her “mini-me”.

In addition to rowing, ROTC and academics, Organek interned with an organization called Veterans in Crisis Sunderland (VICS) in Sunderland, England, in summer 2025. The opportunity was funded by Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing under the Internships in Global Health program. Given that Organek will be entering a career in military medical service, the internship provided her with an advanced look into what it’s like working in support of service members.

Organek also volunteered with STEM to Stern, a program founded in 2021 that harnesses the power of rowing to break down barriers facing the Trenton community while creating opportunities for local youth to engage with Princeton rowers and vice versa.

Organek maximized her Princeton experience in every aspect.

Service to the nation and community, nationally competitive athletics, high-level academics, global internships and lifelong friendships. She accomplished it all.

Greg Hughes, who had a front row seat for four years of the Maile Organek experience, is grateful and honored to have witnessed her journey from walk on to IRCA Coxswain of the Year.

“What made Maile’s senior season especially meaningful was the way she grew as a leader beyond her own boat," said Hughes. “Over the course of the year, she found her voice as one of the genuine leaders on our squad, someone the younger athletes looked to not just for instruction but for example. She set the standard in how she prepared, how she competed, and how she carried herself when things were hard. That influence was felt throughout our program.”