Marquette University club rowing · Milwaukee, WI
Row for Marquette
Most of our rowers had never touched an oar before college. Thirty-six years and 1,200 athletes later, that’s still how it starts — you show up, we teach you the rest.
Who we are
Milwaukee’s student rowing club since 1990
Marquette Crew is the student club rowing team at Marquette University, founded in 1990 by two women athletes, Liz Shanahan and Beth Ohmann. Today we field men’s and women’s squads, each with novice and varsity crews, racing fours and eights across the Midwest and beyond.
More than 1,200 rowers have come through the program — and nearly all of them started with no rowing experience at all. We’re currently the fastest-growing club sport on campus.
1990
Founded by two student athletes
1,200+
Rowers through the program in 36 years
Fastest-growing
club sport on Marquette’s campus
Everyone starts somewhere
No tryouts. No cuts. No experience required.
We don’t recruit high-school rowers and we don’t hold tryouts. If you’re an enrolled Marquette student and you’re willing to work, you’re on the team — it’s that simple.
Novices learn the stroke from scratch in their first season, and plenty of them are racing varsity boats a year later. The only thing we can’t teach is showing up.
Welcome events · Fall 2026
Get started this fall
Come to any one of these — no signup needed for O-Fest, and Learn to Row is exactly what it sounds like.
Sept 5, 6 & 12
Learn to Row
Get in a boat with varsity rowers and take your first strokes. Three sessions — come to whichever fits.
Sept 10
O-Fest
Find our table, meet the team, and put your name down. Two minutes, no commitment.
Sept 13
Team Meeting
The season kickoff — schedules, squads, and what your first weeks will look like.
Where we row
Three rivers, one lake, one erg room
Home base is the boathouse on the Menomonee River. Most mornings we’re there or on the Milwaukee River downtown — and when conditions are right, we take it out onto Lake Michigan.
In winter the whole team moves indoors to the erg room in Humphrey Hall, where the spring season is built one interval at a time.
Life on the team
The 5:15 AM alarm comes with 60 best friends
Team dinners, Thanksgiving together, winter formals, intramural volleyball — the friendships built at sunrise don’t stay in the boat. Ask anyone on the team what kept them here; it’s never just the racing.
On the water this week
@marquettecrew →
Ready to row?
Your seat in the boat is open.
No tryouts, no cuts, no experience required. Tell us you’re interested and we’ll take it from there.
Fill out the interest formTakes about two minutes. No commitment yet — we’ll just say hello.