Rowers make mad dash on river

In race’s 2nd year, route shorter, harder, with fewer bridges

Rowers pass under the Clinton Presidential Park bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock on Saturday as they compete in the Mixed Open 8 category at the Six Bridges Regatta on the Arkansas River. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/galleries.
Rowers pass under the Clinton Presidential Park bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock on Saturday as they compete in the Mixed Open 8 category at the Six Bridges Regatta on the Arkansas River. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/galleries.

The second annual Six Bridges Regatta was much different from the first.

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Coxswain Kayla Ashford (left) guides Karensa Bray (front center) and other rowers from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., off the dock Saturday after competing in the Mixed Open 4 category during the Six Bridges Regatta.

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Spectators sit Saturday morning on the bank of the Arkansas River in North Little Rock as competitors in the Six Bridges Regatta row past.

Construction on the Broadway Bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock changed the Arkansas River race's route from 3.1 miles to 2.5 miles, six bridges to three, and downstream to upstream.

The race became shorter, harder and no longer lived up to its name.

Despite that, the event grew.

Fifteen clubs -- eight more than last year -- and about 70 rowers competed, traveling from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama.

"It's ideal," said Mike Coulson, an Arkansas Boathouse Club board member, as he observed the pre-race conditions Saturday morning. "A little overcast, a little breeze."

And the location is perfect, said Coulson, 62, adding that rowing coaches and clubs had taken notice.

"This is one of the best venues they ever see," he said.

In shifts starting at 8 a.m., rowers left the RowAmerica North Little Rock boathouse -- formerly known as the Arkansas Boathouse Club -- and rowed to their starting positions near Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field. From there, they raced west, passing under the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge, Interstate 30 bridge and the Junction Bridge before stopping short of the Main Street Bridge, which sits at the foot of the Broadway Bridge construction.

The regular course, traversed last year by seven clubs from five states, starts near the Big Rock Quarry and travels east, passing under the Barling Cross Bridge before reaching the other five bridges downtown.

The regatta is a head-race, meaning it's a long-distance race against a clock instead of a side-by-side speed race.

Because of that, crew members from Samford University had to wait long after they rowed to find out whether they had finished second and third out of six teams in the women's collegiate heat for four or more rowers.

The women from the Birmingham, Ala., college cheered and hugged and were all smiles after their first race of the season.

The second-place team finished with a time of 22:03, and the third-place team finished in 22:53.

"That would be a good time for a 5K," said Haley Bishop, 22, who rowed on the third-place team.

But for Bishop and her teammates, that was good enough for an upstream race so early in the season.

Meredith Hendricks, 37, and her three teammates from the Rowing Club of Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville finished the course in 23:53, but got an official score of 23:43 because of the higher average age of their team over their competitors.

"It was great," Hendricks said, smiling under the I-30 bridge Saturday. "The weather was perfect, with a little cloud cover so it wasn't too hot."

The course was long, but rewarding, she said.

"Rowing is a hard sport," she said.

Hendricks started in the sport eight years ago when she was living in Portland, Ore., and has carried it with her to the 4-year-old club in Fayetteville.

The club is trying to grow and increase interest among young people, similar to what RowAmerica intends to do in the old Boathouse Club building on Riverfront Drive in North Little Rock.

Rowing is not big in high schools or even a lot of colleges in Arkansas, Coulson said, but he's hoping RowAmerica can help the Arkansas Boathouse Club board of directors expand the sport in the state.

The rowers on the third-place Samford team had never rowed until college. But love of the sport drew them to central Arkansas -- where they had never competed before.

It's a full-body workout, it's close to the water, and it's teamwork.

"There's no star player," Bishop said.

"[It's] just being out on the water with four people you really care about," she said.

Metro on 09/20/2015

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