Shocker Rowing

2010-2011 Press Releases
June 7, 2011 / 3 WSU Rowers Make All American Teams

Boulder, CO – The American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) announced winners of the All American boats. Three Wichita State University rowers made boats: Rebecca Denny ’13 made the 2nd team boat, Chelsea Chavez ’11 made the 3rd team boat and Freshman Kelsy Thompson made the Freshman boat.

The winners of the All American boats were picked from the regional winners of which WSU had 5 winners. Joining Denny and Chavez for Regional Winners were Malcolm Johnson ’12, Christian Kindel ’13 and Sydney Fish ’13. From the 50 Regional winners for each gender, 27 were chosen to make the First, Second or Third boat. 2,000 meter testing scores, performance of their crew (with most
consideration on ACRA results), career racing results, accomplishments within their team,
individual performances and the coach recommendation were the factors used for decisions.

Chavez made the 2nd Team Boat in 2010 and Denny won a spot on the 2010 Freshmen boat.

The Freshmen boat lineup is not chosen until after ACRA Nationals, which this year, were May 28 and 29. The boats are made from coaches’ recommendations and the student-athletes are judged on similar criteria as the All American boats with large consideration given to ACRA results.

Thompson, a recruited Volleyball, Track, Basketball and weight lifting high school athlete from Haysville Campus High School, started rowing in August 2010 with WSU. She quickly made the top novice boats her fall semester and by spring was rowing in the women’s varsity eight that placed 7th overall in the nation.

Adam Taylor ’14, Marlo Griffith ’14, Eli Copas ’13 were also nominated for the Freshmen Team Boats.

5-30-2011 / Shocker Rowing Repeat Gold at Nationals

Gainesville, GA – Wichita State Rowing takes Gold for the second year in a row at the American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships (ACRA) in the Men’s Double. The Women’s Varsity Eight placed 7th and the Men’s Varsity Eight beat long time rivals Texas and Colorado after losing to them earlier this season. Racing took place on Lake Lanier, the site of the 1996 Olympic venue.

In their Men’s Double heats, Malcolm Johnson’12 and Adam Taylor ’14, easily took the lead over UNC, Bucknell and Michigan. In the other heat, Washington University had a close time to WSU, so the final looked to be a tight race. However early in the final race, Johnson and Taylor took the lead and never let any of the other boats catch them; they finished with a time of 7:10.5.

Throughout the season, the Women’s Varsity Eight had been ranked nationally in the top 10, starting at 10 and slowly climbing to 8th in April. In their heats, WSU faced Grand Valley, UNH and UC-Santa Barbara, Ohio State and Vanderbilt. The women needed to place in the top three to move to the Grand Final. Despite a well fought race, they were edged out of 3rd by UCSB to finish with a time of 7:11.4 to UCSB’s 7:10.1. Grand Valley would later finish 2nd and UNH 3rd in the Grand Finals.

In the Petite Final, WSU was closely followed by Ohio State who tried to make a move with 500 to go, but the Shockers remained in their early lead and made a brilliant sprint at the end to finish with a time of 6:57.0.

Shocker Rowing took all 47 of its athletes, one of the largest teams represented at the ACRAs. WSU also raced in the Men’s Single, Women’s Novice Four, Men’s Novice Four, Women’s JV8 and Men’s Lightweight Four. All boats posted their best times of the season.

WSU Rowing returns to the water in August to start its 2011-2012 season.

5-26-2011 / ACRA Rowings Regional Winners Announced

Boulder, CO – The American Collegiate Rowing Association announced its regional winners for Coach of the Year and All American Rowers. Shocker Rowing had 6 winners this year of 10 nominations.

Malcolm Johnson ‘12 and Christian Kindel ’13 won for the Men’s Plains region. Chelsea Chavez ‘11, Sydney Fish ’13 and Rebecca Denny ’13 were Women’s Team winners. Head Coach Calvin Cupp was also the Plains Region Coach of the Year winner for the Women’s Team.

9 Athletes are chosen from each region. The student-athletes must row in the top boat and are also graded according to his/her 2000 meter erg score, career racing results, accomplishments within the team and the coach’s recommendation. Coaches were selected among peers for improvement from last year’s racing, quality of racing and results.

The team is headed to Gainesville, Georgia for the ACRA Championships on May 28 and 29. Johnson will race in the Men’s Double, the event in which he won gold last year. Kindel will race in the Men’s Varsity Eight, he is a second year rower.

Chavez, a 4th year rower, will race in the Women’s Varsity Eight along with Denny and Fish, both second year rowers. The Women’s Varsity Eight has been ranked among the top 10 all spring season and goes into the Championships in the number seven spot.

Cupp has been at the helm of the team since 1999; this is his first time receiving the award.

On Saturday, May 28, First and Second Team Boats will be announced from the Regional Nominations as will the Coach of the Year.

5-16-2011 / Rowing team heading to National Championships

Shocker Rowing is preparing for the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championships. The ACRA will take place May 28 & 29 in Gainesville, GA on Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier was the host site for the 1996 Olympic rowing races and is one of the best race courses in the country.

Last year the Shockers returned home with two medals which included one gold in the Men’s Double Scull (M2X). Malcolm Johnson returns to the event with for a shot at the repeat gold. His partner, Allen Strickler, graduated in 2010 so he is teaming up with Adam Taylor who is a top rowing recruit for the Shockers from Australia.

The Shockers return to the Men’s Varsity 8+ event and have their sights set on improving on their first place finish in the third level finals. This crew is young but strong and aggressive. Kaila Kiser, varsity coxswain will lead the crew on their quest for a higher finish. She will be supported by a strong and experienced core of upper class rowers who include William Calderwood, Christian Kindel and Morgan Snell.

The Varsity Women will step back onto the larger stage this year with their return to the Varsity 8+ event. Over the past two years the women have been a top crew in the Varsity 4+ event and with the increased size of our women’s squad we are going back into the main event. This crew is anchored by a core group of forth year rowers who all know what it is like to row in the Grand Finals of the ACRA’s: Chelsea Chavez, Melissa Koehn, Erica Kuhlman and Stephanie Lillie. This crew has attracted much attention as they have been ranked in the top 10 nationally most of the spring and currently hold the 9th place in the ACRA poll. There are over one hundred and sixty ACRA member schools.

For the first time at the ACRA’s the Shockers will be entering the Women’s Second Varsity 8+ event. This shows how much the team’s depth has improved as not many programs can field this event. This crew is led by four upper class women: Laura Calhoun, Sydney Blanton, Hope Patterson and Rachel Wullenweber.

Our Men’s Lwt Varsity 4+ is led by Ryan Hollingshead and Francis Nguyen. This is a quality crew and we expect them to challenge the field of competition at nationals.

The Shockers will also be competing in the Men’s Novice 4+ and Women’s 4+. All of these are strong crews who will represent Shocker Rowing well on the national stage.

4-10-2011 / Omaha, NE

Wichita State Rowing wins the men’s and women’s team points trophies at the Upper Midwest Rowing Championships.

Every athlete medalled. Teams at the event included: Colorado State, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma City University, Nebraska, St Thomas, St Cloud, and host Creighton.
This is the first year in the event’s 16 year history that WSU women have won the women’s team trophy. The men have won the trophy the past 3 years and also in 2007.

The women started putting points on the board early in the day with a win in the women’s eight against Creighton, St Cloud and St Thomas. Creighton, a DI rowing team, has often been fierce competition for WSU’s women’s team and were the Upper Midwest women’s team winners in 2010. Other events won by the women were the Women’s Varsity Four(s), Novice Four and Lightweight Four. Towards the end of the day, it came down to the last two women’s events (the WN4B and LtwW4); at this point Creighton and WSU were close in points, wins by Creighton in the last two events would have meant a tie for the women’s trophy. But the WN4B took third and the lightweight four cinched the win to put the team points for WSU at 150 to Creighton’s 117. St Thomas took third with 28 points.

The men took first by dominating the field in numbers, with a roster of 22 men (and 27 women), but also through good racing. The men took first in the Men’s Varsity and Lightweight Fours and 2nd and 3rd in the men’s Varsity eight race in addition to seconds in other races. WSU had 128 points to Oklahoma City University’s 91 and Kansas State’s 48. The men saw their best competition from Oklahoma City who placed first in the men’s Varsity Eight and beat WSU’s 2nd place boat by 1 second. The team will race OCU again on April 30 in OKC. The novice men’s eight will be seeking revenge for their lost today to KSU after having beaten them in the last two meetings.

Wichita State Rowing races at home on April 16 against Nebraska and win honor former Shocker Rower and Volunteer Assistant Coach Angie Johnson who passed away in 2010 with a boat dedication.

2-2011 / Boy Scouts Challenge Shocker Rowers to Race

Feb 12, 2011 – Wichita, KS. WSU Rowing’s 3rd Annual Shocker Sprints Indoor Rowing Race has a new challenge race. Local Cub Scout Pack 506, Den 2, Webelos I of Wichita have challenged Shocker Rowers to a 200 meter race. As the racing is computerized, the 8-12 year olds can be given a handicap to make the race a fair one. Four of their scouts will race as one boat against four Shocker Rowers.

Indoor racing which takes place on rowing machines lends itself well to handicapped racing. On the water, the boy scouts could be given a lead, but how much of a lead is difficult to assess given wind and water currents – and that’s if the boy scouts knew how to row a rowing boat. Learning to row a boat takes time. Anyone can easily jump on a rowing machine to row or race and handicaps can be easily managed.

“The Boy Scouts will start racing and probably 10-20 seconds later, we will start the Shocker Rowers,” race organizer and WSU Assistant Rowing Coach Tori Breithaupt explains. “The efforts of the rowers appear on a screen that is magnified so that spectators can tell how far behind the Shocker Rowers will be when they start racing. It will be very exciting to watch because you can see the ‘play by play’ on the screen and get close to the racers to cheer them on.”

This is the first year that a Boy Scout troop will compete. “We’re excited for the new challenge; it will add a new fun race to an already exciting event schedule,” Breithaupt says. “Outdoor racing has the beauty of the rowers moving in sync, but it’s difficult to watch all of the race as the boats start 1.25 miles away. The indoor race is computerized, all in one place, very loud, very infectious – you can't help but want to cheer on those racing.”

Events at Shocker Sprints include the 2000 meter races, 500 meter races and the team 1000 meter race. The 2000 meter is for anyone who wants to measure his or her fitness. Collegiate rowers race 2000 meters, for them this race is a chance to measure their early spring conditioning. In the team 1000 meter races, four athletes compete as one boat against four other athletes – similar to the boy scout challenge.

The 500 meter races are an easy distance that anyone can do. There are prizes for the best WSU Student and Best WSU Faculty/Staff racer among other categories. This event is free.

Shocker Sprints takes place February 12 from 9-2 at WSU’s Heskett Center. Admission is free.

Coach Breithaupt will also hold clinics for those wanting to know how to row on the machine. Those dates are 9th from 5:15-5:30 and 8th from 12-12:35. These clinics are also free, even for non WSU persons.

11-11-2010 / WSU Rowing Signs its First 2001 Rower

Katie Mullins of Lenexa, KS is the first to sign with Shocker Rowing for the 2011-2012 season. Mullins, a senior at Shawnee Mission West High School, is part of the Kansas City Rowing Club. She recently took two Bronzes at the Frostbite Regatta in Nov and a silver at the Head of the Oklahoma in Oct.

“Katie has a tenacity I really like,” says her KCRC coach, Jenn Jewett. “She has a willingness to try anything and make it work.” Indeed at the Head of the Oklahoma she had only rowed the rec single for about 20 minutes before jumping into the race in which she medaled.
Shocker Rowing recently won both the women’s and men’s varsity eights and fours and was second in the novice eights at the Frostbite Regatta on Nov 7, 2010. WSU is striving to gain more speed come spring and next fall and having recruits of Mullins’ caliber will push the Shockers in the right direction.

Mullins will pursue a major in science or engineering.

Hometown: Lenexa, KS
Side/Sculler: Sculler. Starboard when sweeping
Sports experience: Scholar athlete, Sunflower League School softball, JCGC summer softball, Olathe Fall softball, Schoolgirls Golf team, Kansas City Rowing club junior crew
Other: Biotechnology, NJROTC (rank:ensign/ O-1), Honor Roll
Personal: Parents: Rob Mullins and Elaine Mullins, Brother Austin Mullins
Why rowing? Began rowing in the summer after Junior year and fell in love with it.
Why WSU? Has the science/ Engineering I would like to pursue, great location, beautiful town. First time I saw WSU race was at the Sunflower State Games over the summer and was really impressed with the team.

10-04-2010 / WSU Rowing to Race the US National Team

Rowing competitions do not draw crowds like football, basketball or baseball…on a regular basis. Oklahoma City is working to change that this weekend (Oct 9-10) at the Head of the Oklahoma. The racing this weekend will include spectator friendly features such as a jumbo-tron of the racers for easy watching, racing at night that is illuminated with lights and lasers, family activities and world class rowers such as the US National team.

Amid all this activity, will be WSU Rowing. Chelsea Chavez ’11 and Erica Kuhlman ’11 who placed second at the Head of the Des Moines in the women’s double will challenge 4 National team boats, Kansas University, Oklahoma University, and rowers from Canada among others in this 23 competitor event. Rowing is one of the sports in which college athletes such as Chavez and Kuhlman can race against those who have competed in the Olympics; how often does the WSU tennis team get to play against Rafael Nadal or Serena Williams?

The WSU men will also see some fast racing in the men’s eight event in which National Champion teams, Harvard and University of California-Berkeley will be racing. Oklahoma City helped fund the travel for these schools to attend this regatta so that Midwest teams could race against some of the best teams in the country. The East and West coasts have had rowing programs since the 1800s in locations such as Boston and Oakland; it wasn't until the 1970s that Wichita started a rowing program. It’s much easier for Harvard to find lots of competition not only on its home waters, but even within 1-4 hours away. Midwest teams must travel several hours to find competition and of course the best is a several day journey.

WSU will bring its own foreign flavor to racing this weekend as Adam Taylor ’14 from Perth, Australia competes in the men’s novice eight, men’s double and men’s junior single. Taylor who has been rowing since he was 14, was Champion Boy his senior year in high school and set a course record at the Head of the River.
WSU Rowing returns to its home waters on the Little Arkansas River in Wichita on November 7, 2010 for the Frostbite Regatta.

For more information contact:
Tori Breithaupt, Assistant Coach WSU Rowing
Tori.breithaupt@wichita.edu or at (316) 978-3465

9-20-2010 / Shocker Rowing Season Starter September 25

Wichita, Kansas (September 20, 2010) - Wichita State University Rowing will have its first races of the 2010/2011 season on Sept 25, 2010. The varsity rowing team will travel to Des Moines, Iowa to race in the Head of Des Moines. Meanwhile, the Novice team will be racing in Wichita on the Little Arkansas at 10:00 AM at Riverside against Oklahoma State University.

At the varsity race, the Shockers will be rowing eights and fours in both men’s and women’s boats, as well as doubles. In addition, Malcolm Johnson, ‘12 will be racing in the single. “The varsity team is expected to compete and do very well this weekend,” according to assistant coach Tori Breithaupt. Competitors will include Iowa, KU, KSU and Drake.

Ryan Hollingshead, ’11, of Wichita will race at bow seat in the men’s eight and four in Des Moines. An exercise science major, Hollingshead spent the summer training in Austin, Texas with the University of Texas rowing team.

Of the Novice squad, all but one, are walk-ons, never having rowed before this fall. Ashley Grubb, ’12, of Ozawkie, KS, was a Neosho Community College softball player who took up rowing to have a physical outlet in college and try something new. She is expected to row 3 seat in the women’s four.

For additional information please call Tori Breithaupt at 316-978-3465 or email Tori at tori.breithaupt@wichita.edu.