Locals Take to Rowing Like Ducks to Water

The St. Louis Rowing Club recently brought home the bronze medal in competition on the river in Chattanooga, TN.

Locals included Ladue rowers Isabelle Benduski and Hannah Kloppenburg, Holly Payne of Parkway Central and Lara Bleeke from Clayton High.

The four rowers had to make good with a subsitute when one of the regulars went out in the last minute, unable to participate. Kloppenburg jumped in to rescue the team.

The event is called the Hooch with some 1,600 rowers participating in a race watched by some 18,000 spectators. The event began in the mid 1980s in Roswell, GA then moved to Chatanooga in 2005.

The local rowers were just 10 seconds off the winning time.

The team will resume training striving to do well at the Nationals in 2012.