2015-2016 Varsity and Novice Captains
Each year, the team chooses two athletes who demonstrate exceptional dedication, teamwork, and leadership to become the captain of their respective squads. This year we are proud to announce Senior Marshall Kanute as Varsity captain, and Sophomore Rob Rowenhorst as Novice captain. Below is a brief bio on the two, along with a huge thank you to their squads.
Marshall Kanute was born and raised in the Western suburbs of Chicago. He grew up with two brothers, and followed family tradition by attending high school at Marmion Military Academy in Aurora IL, where he swam in the winters and practiced golf year round with his brothers and father. His senior year, he helped lead the Marmion Academy Golf Team to its first ever second place finish in the state finals. After graduating it was time for something different, and shortly after arriving in San Diego for college he was approached by the new SDSU Men’s Crew coach Dr. Doug Perez to check out the sport of rowing. After the first week Marshall knew he was not going to have a typical college experience, so he settled in for 4 years of getting up in the dark every day to learn the meaning of hard work and what it means to live in the pursuit of excellence. Marshall is now in his senior year of studying classical piano and 4th year on the team, he has maintained a seat in the Varsity 8 boat for the past two years as well as being bow seat in the Varsity Heavyweight 4 that raced at Nationals this past spring.
“I am beyond grateful of my teammates for allowing me this opportunity to help lead and motivate the team to be the best it can be in the coming season. Being on this team has changed my life and I want to do everything I can to make sure it continues to grow and offer that same opportunity for others after I am gone.
This is going to be a big year for us. We have set high goals for this season and everyone is putting in the work every single day to achieve them. Being a student run program, we are incredibly lucky to have such dedicated team officers and coaching working behind the scenes to ensure things continue to run efficiently. We have all been working as hard as we can for years now and this is the year we are going to establish Aztec Rowing as a very competitive West Coast program, we hope to make all of our supporters proud”
Sophomore and Business Administration major Rob Rowenhorst is a 2014 graduate of California High School in San Ramon, CA. In high school, Rob was a three-year varsity soccer player and two-time All East Bay Athletic League athlete. Rob was named MVP and Outstanding Winter Athlete his senior year in addition to Rob competing in track and field as an 800m and 400m runner. Rob is beginning his first season on the SDSU Novice crew team, after playing intramural co-ed softball and his freshman year. He has an older sister, Sarah, who attends Cal Poly. In his free time, Rob enjoys traveling, hiking and riding his motorcycle.
“I would like to thank my teammates and Coach Julia for giving me the opportunity to hold such an important position on the team. I am truly honored to be held in such high regard by the Novice team. From the first day out on the water, I fell in love with the sport and knew that this was something that I want to spend the next three years pursing. I believe my teammates are proof that only quality guys stick with crew! I am excited about the Novice team and SDSU crew program as a whole, and I look forward to our continued growth and success in the future. Go Aztecs!”
