If I had to describe the Lawrence University Rowing Club (LURC) in one word, I would be torn; I could choose one about their persistent adaptability as they work to overcome challenges, or maybe one commemorating their flexibility as they meet each member where they are on their rowing journey. As it stands, LURC is at once defined by both traits, navigating each opportunity as it comes to them. One could say in that sense that the club has proved to be — literally and figuratively — skilled at going with the flow.
Many club members’ introductions to LURC came about in this ‘go-with-the-flow’ sort of way. LURC’s President, senior Maddy Salinardi, was looking for a new way to stay active last Spring Term after quitting basketball when a LURC poster caught her eye. Salinardi had had some experience in indoor rowing back in her hometown, so she decided she would give the club a shot. Clicking with both the sport and the people in the club, she found not only the activity she sought, but a new community of driven and fun-loving Lawrentians.
They say good things come in threes, and Treasurer junior Eitan Price’s introduction with LURC may just be an attestation to that. He credited a series of three invitations to the club in the span of a week — one was extended by the former LURC president in a book club email thread, one was in LURC’s appearance on a social network he and his roommates were watching and the final was in a friend’s recommendation. In light of these coincidences, he figured he would take a stab at the sport and connected with it, pursuing it even off-campus over the summer with a rowing club in Madison.
Having joined as a first-year, senior Jack Stuart is the longest-standing member of the club. They chanced upon a poster just as the club had begun to get back on its feet after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and to this day have stuck with it.
LURC’s big seasons for activity are fall and spring, when Stuart said the club gets out on the Fox River at least a few days a week. Because Wisconsin winters make it difficult to get out on the water, they move to indoor equipment in the colder months to keep engaging with the sport in spite of the inclement weather. The three board members concurred that Winter Term is the optimal time for new members to join, since they can build the fundamental skills of the sport in a controlled indoor environment before setting out on the river for formal practice in Spring Term.
This year, staying sharp during the off-season is especially important to LURC; Price announced that come Spring Term, LURC will begin to regularly both attend and host competitions with other rowing clubs. While the club has appeared at competitions like these in years prior, they have not always been invited as competitors, and when they hosted, the competitions were informal and small-scale. For the first time, however, LURC has built connections with university rowing organizations from places as notable as Madison and Milwaukee, planning to both compete at their events and invite them back as competitors to Lawrence. Stuart hopes that this new competitive culture will continue as the club grows in equipment, club generational knowledge and notoriety.
Though LURC is dedicated to its titular sport, the three board members emphasized that it is a student-run club rather than an athletic team of strict attendance and grueling regimen. Salinardi and Stuart both made clear that the club is flexible when it comes to both scheduling and pacing skill-building activities.
“You don’t have to be a Division I college athlete by any means,” Stuart assured. “We have people of all sorts of athletic abilities who have joined [LURC], and we do our best to improve week after week, but it’s open to anyone who’s willing to try and put in the effort […] If you reach out to one of the board members and say ‘I want to do this,’ we will find a way for you to do it.”
The club community, while deeply passionate about rowing, is also made up of people who know how to have a lot of fun, Salinardi said. “We’re really cool and nice and we like to watch the ‘Trolls’ movies,” she offered as explanation.
Both Stuart and Price considered the club a way to make time and create new routine in the midst of the Lawrence Busy. Stuart brought up the importance not only of separating from work for a while but also of experiencing the beauty of the surrounding environment in a unique way.
“People really neglect to realize how much of a resource and an amazing location the Fox River is,” Stuart declared. “We can check in on the same bird nests that we pass by every time we go out, and we get to see […] Appleton from a whole new perspective, in a way that you can’t normally [see on the] Lawrence [campus].”
Aside from competitions and reconnecting with the outdoors, when asked what LURC is planning for their future, Price responded simply:
“We’re planning to get out there and row!”
All three board members encouraged interested Lawrentians to reach out to them via Outlook.