Quaker Recreation Center Features Gym, Indoor Track, Weight Training, Aerobic Fitness and Much More
Wilmington College students arrived on campus in August to find a fully functioning recreation and fitness center known as the QRC.
PICTURED: College faculty and staff toured the QRC Thursday morning, including from the left, Lori Watts, Tammi Carpenter, Holly Ibaugh, Lynn Ratliff and Vicki McFarland, who are checking out the treadmills.
The QRC (Quaker Recreation Center) is the renovated former Clinton County YMCA, which the College purchased last year following the Y’s demise.
Paula Stewart, director of Wellness and Quaker Fit, said the QRC has been “well received” by students and also is being utilized by faculty and staff members. “It’s nice having so many fitness and recreation options so readily accessible — everything’s all in one spot.”
Indeed, the QRC complements the adjacent Hermann Court complex, the College’s indoor sports venue and physical education center since the mid-1960s that features basketball courts, a swimming pool and other facilities for athletics, intramurals, fitness and recreation, including such amenities as squash and racquetball courts.
Dr. Terry Rupert, vice president for athletic administration, said the QRC offers current students numerous leisure time opportunities and should be an attractive feature to share with student recruits. Indeed, at no time in WC’s history has the College offered its students so many options at a single contiguous part of campus.
“This is the most accessible recreation and fitness space students have ever had,” added.
WC shored up the structure’s infrastructure and remodeled spaces to feature a multi-use lobby area with a welcome desk, a space dedicated to weight training machines and another section with a lounge and high definition television, the latter of which has been a popular gathering space for students to play X-Box and other group gaming activities.
Also, there’s a studio exclusively reserved for spin bike classes and a group fitness room with a wooden flooring surface surrounded by aerobic exercise machines like treadmills and elliptical steppers. Also, the QRC features an upper-level indoor walking/jogging track and gymnasium.
The College moved equipment from the former fitness center on the ground floor of Pyle Student Center and purchased a number of new treadmills, recumbent bicycles, spin bikes and a rowing machine.
The central space in the QRC is dedicated as a training area for the College’s newly revived, intercollegiate wrestling program, which will begin competition in fall 2018.
The QRC also offers space to grow as other areas of the facility become remodeled and designated for uses designed to benefit students.
“The facility will be developed further in the future — there is a lot more we can do,” Rupert said, noting it could even accommodate some academic applications. “As our exercise science program grows, there will be a need for a high tech lab. We have a perfect space here to accommodate that.”