Cougars Benefit Because Kistler Gave Crew A Shot

Washington State’s Michelle Kistler considers herself an exception, even to the broad rules that govern the highly inexact science of collegiate crew recruiting.

“Most of us come from basketball, volleyball or swimming backgrounds,” she said, referring to her teammates on the Varsity Eight boat that will compete in next weekend’s Collegiate National Rowing Championships in Cincinnati. “But my main thing was the shot put.”

It was only after a brief fling with basketball that Kistler tried out for Central Valley High track and field team as a junior.

Until then, her competitive interests had centered around horse shows, hardly a hotbed for college crew recruiters. Her fifthplace finish in the State AAA shot put as a senior didn’t do much to spark the interest of college coaches, either.

It is not surprising, then, that Kistler learned about WSU’s little-publicized crew team through a flier that was distributed around campus after she enrolled as a freshman in the fall of 1991.

It is even less surprising that she passed on the sport after learning of the physical demands.

“I looked into it, but then I heard that you had to practice at 5 o’clock in the morning and I was, like, ‘No thanks.’ That didn’t sound like a lot of fun.”

A year later, Kistler received a similar flier and bought into what coach Tammy Crawford was selling. She acquired a reliable alarm clock and reluctantly accepted the fact that she was about to push her body to its physical limits.

“My novice year, it was the most work I have ever done,” she said. “If I had known back in high school just how hard I’m capable of working, I would have been the state champion shot-putter instead of fifth place.”

Today, Kistler is one of WSU’s strongest rowers. As the stroke, sitting closest to the

stern, she sets the rhythm. The others must follow her cadence.

Some of her teammates, like Tekoa’s Emily French, were high school basketball players. Others, like Pullman’s Paula Curry, were three-sport standouts. Nicole Bauer was a skier.

About the only thing they have in common is the satisfaction from working as hard, or harder, than any other athletes and working in near obscurity.

“I guess it’s just knowing that my body is capable of this power - not just personal power, but the power of the whole team,” she said. “It’s like an energy that is generated by unity and once it gets going, there’s no other feeling like it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo