Michigan State Crew Club

Dr. Elliot originally founded Michigan State Crew Club. It’s our honor to share with you his short autobiography.

Dr. Gene Elliott’s efforts to bring back a rowing shell from Cornell University led to what is known as the MSU Crew Club. With the request of Athletic Director “Biggie” Munn, Gene travelled, in the winter of 1957 to Ithaca, N.Y. to pick-up a used wooden shell from Cornell. At the time Gene was a graduate student in the Physical Education department and a student director of Intramural Sports. He later, that year, became the team’s first faculty advisor in 1957. In Ithaca the boat was loaded onto a makeshift platform on the back of a pick-up truck. In the middle of a winter snow storm, with icy roads, it was driven back to East Lansing. Despite the weather conditions, no damage occured to the hull until backing into Spartan Stadium when the steering panel was nicked.

Dr. Elliott received his undergraduate and Masters degrees at MSU after four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Gene had then recently secretly married his sweetheart Connie who graduated as a music major at Mary Washington University located near Quantico Marine Station. Their marriage lasted 59 years until Connie died in 2010. After receiving his Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland, Gene taught Psychology at Rowan University in Southern New Jersey for 35 years. He is retired and living with Dr. Corrinne Caldwell, Professor of Higher Education at Temple University, in New Town Square, PA.

Gene has a son who graduated from Ferris State University and is a Technical Operations Manager with The Ford Motor Company. A daughter who graduated from Interlocken Arts Academy and is a music teacher in Dallas, TX. A daughter who attended MSU and is an Investigator with the Office of Attorney Regulations of the Supreme Court of Colorado, where she investigates unscrupulous lawyers. A son who is a Sports Editor with The Philadelphia Inquirer and a Granddaughter, Courtney, who is with Intel and has two degrees from MSU.

Results and achievements from the Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships this Saturday will be posted next week. Live results  can be found at http://www.chicagoindoorrowing.com/.

Stay tuned, and go green!

MSU Crew now trains at the Central Services building behind Spartan Stadium. Just within the building is a defunct freezer space. The “Meat Locker” hosts the new erg room, staff office, and weight room.

Renovations and improvements continue there as MSU prepares for the 2012 Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships on February 25th.

MSU is in the hunt to win CIRC’s mens 2000m and 2500m relay challenge, and looking to break event records. Visit CIRC’s website for more information, and take a look at MSU Crew’s full Spring season schedule.

At last year’s CIRC, Michigan State’s Neal Ellsworth and John Glines led the mens squad with a one-two finish in the Men’s 2000m, while Laurissa Gulich and Diane Burek took the Lightweight Women’s 2000m also with a one-two finish.

The winning men’s 2500m relay team included Tim Gruber, Cory Smetana, and Michael Slopsema.

Find MSU Crew at the Meat Locker in the Central Services building, from 6-8am or 5-7pm.

View MSU Crew in a larger map

The team previously trained at Demonstration Hall, sharing the building with Michigan State’s ROTC and Marching Band. On-the-water rowing still takes place at Grand River Park in Lansing, and begins in March. Go green!

Indianapolis, IN: MSU Crew raced last Saturday Oct. 29, at the Head of the Eagle regatta. 3 boats medaled, with the Mens Open Varsity 4+ and the Mens Open Novice 4+ awarded silver, and the Mens Open Varsity 8+ awarded bronze. Indoor winter training at Demonstration Hall begins next week, where rowers will transition to 2k sprint training. Spring racing begins as early as March 2012.

View photos from the regatta, courtesy of Cory Koeller and Gene Paskiewicz. Complete team results are posted below.

Mens Open 4+: 13:19.1 (2nd)
Mens Open Novice 4+: 14:43.3 (2nd)
Mens Open 8+ A: 12:28.6 (3rd)
Mens Open 8+ B: 13:12.8 (4th)
Mens Open Novice 8+ A: 12:57.80 (4th)
Mens Open Novice 8+ B: 14:03.1 (4th)
Womens Open 4+ A: 16:26.80 (6th)
Mens Open Lightweight 4+: 15:40.4 (9th)
Mens Open Novice 8+ C: 15:26.8 (10th)
Mens Open Novice 8+ D: 16:41.3 (12th)
Full regatta results.

MSU Crew traveled Sunday to their first head race, the Head of the Rock in Rockford, IL.

Our gender-mixed 8+ medaled at 2nd place behind Purdue University Crew. The 1st and 2nd mens novice 8+’s finished 4th and 10th, and the mens novice 4+ finished 4th. The mens 1st varsity 8+ finished 7th. Full results can be found at RegattaCentral.

MSU Crew all day this Sunday hosts the annual Head of the Grand regatta, at Grand River Park in Lansing, MI. Map to regatta.

Practice begins for all 2011 novice today Tuesday; if you missed us last week, we invite you to our open practices at Demonstration Hall. They run on weekdays throughout this month, at 5:45am, 3pm, and 5pm (come to either). Bring running shoes and water.

Dem’ Hall is located between IM West and Jenison Hall. We practice in the arena.

View Dem Hall in a larger map

MSU Crew welcomes you to college!

Consider representing your school as a rower. Rowing builds camaraderie, discipline, a great physique, and the sense of working toward something larger than yourself. But it requires its athletes to perform as committed, responsible, and hard-working individuals.

No experience is necessary; many successful rowers began their careers as college freshmen, just like you.

Find us around campus – on the sidewalks east of Wells Hall, and at the Rock – during the week of Monday, the 29th-Friday, the 2th. Below are some important dates and times:

Monday, Aug 29,   Wednesday, Aug 31,   Thursday, Sept 1

Open House

Demonstration Hall, 4-5:30pm (map)

Wednesday, Aug 31   &   Thursday, Sept 1

Mens Informational Meetings

IM West, room 208, 6:30pm (map)

Don’t know where you’re going? we marked some locations below.

View larger map

See you there!

Michigan State came into the 2011 American Collegiate Rowing Association club national championships with motivation after their performance at the Dad Vail.

The varsity men’s double, stroked by Pat Lyons and Marty Deskovich pushed hard to make the A final. The double placed 6th overall.

The novice men’s open 8+ placed well to make the A-B semis, and found their way into the B final amidst a very competitive field of novice heavyweights. The novice 8+ of MSU finished 5th in the B final, 11th in the nation of ACRA clubs.

The women’s varsity 8+ had a tough heat, barely falling behind Florida to find their crew in the B final. The women finished the season strong in a fourth place finish, beating Vanderbilt and Virginia.

The varsity men’s lightweight 4+ came into the ACRA regatta with a disappointing showing at the Dad Vail, after not making the final with a #2 seed.
The light four performed well, placing 2nd in their heat, besting WashU, as well as Penn State, and recorded the third fastest time in their heats.

The final was a fight to the finish, which gave WashU the last laugh as they barely edged out the MSU lights in the last 500, giving MSU 4th overall in the club national championship regatta. The crew would have liked to finish with an ACRA bronze, but posting their fastest time of the year, a 6:52, took some sting away

The men’s V8+ had a positive showing, getting to the A-B semis, beating Rhode Island, Santa Barbara and Nebraska.

The state crew pushed on to find a 5th place finish in the A-B semi, which had a two second gap from first to fifth.

The Spartan crew finished their season strong, placing first in the B final, besting Purdue, Grand Valley, UCDavis, Minnesota and Rhode Island for a final standing of 7th in club national standings.

The Michigan State Crew club would like to thank all of our support this year from friends and family.

Also we say thank you and good bye to seniors Laurissa Gulich, Sarah DiMaria, Neal Ellsworth, Andrew Keller, Rita Malysheva, and Claire Psarathoukas.

Watch live streams of qualifying crews competing tomorrow on Dadvail.org and ESPN3.com. ESPN3 will cover the regatta’s grand finals between 1-5pm. Dadvail.org will cover the day’s races in its entirety.

MSU crews will compete Saturday in the following races.

7:18am – Mens Novice 4 semifinals

9:07am – Mens Varsity Lightweight 4 semifinals

10:35am – Mens Varsity Heavyweight 8 semifinals

12:43pm – Mens Novice Lightweight 8 grand final

Semifinals indicate possible qualification for grand finals later in the day; check back here for updates. GO STATE!

Watch online Saturday as MSU Crew take on the East coast crews at the Dad Vail Championships in Philadelphia, PA, streaming live at ESPN 3. Coverage begins Saturday at 1 pm.

Please note that the following scheduled times are approximate, and our crews may begin several minutes later than listed below.

Friday heats, streaming live at Dadvail.org.:

10:20am – Mens Varsity  8

11:05am – Womens Varsity 8

11:34 – Mens Singles

1:13pm – Mens Novice 4

2:49pm – Mens Varsity Lightweight 4

Saturday:

12:43pm – Mens Novice Lightweight 8

Further updates to Saturday’s schedule will be posted as crews qualify for finals. GO GREEN, GO WHITE!

(Pictured above is the 2010 novice lightweight crew; they brought home gold medals in Philadelphia last year with a solid 2.4 second lead over St. Joseph’s University)

… To the new website of the Michigan State University Crew Club. Updates to the roster and the alumni database, as well as new photos from regattas, will be made throughout the month.