PARKLAND — The Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association traveled to Pacific Lutheran University on Saturday to compete in Northwest Ergomania!, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere indoor rowing competition.
The athletes compete on rowing machines at distances ranging from 500 meters, which only takes a couple of minutes, to as far as they can go in an “hour of power.”
Among the OPRA athletes, Ryan Halfacre took home a first-place medal in the under 15 men’s 500-meter event with a time of 2 minutes, 27.4 seconds and a second in the junior men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 28:40.3.
Teig Carlson, Mason Mai and Quince Chanway all competed in the under 15 men’s 2,000 meters. Carlson finished second with a time of 7:43.8, Mai was fifth at 8:17.1, and Chanway was 10th with a time of 9:02.0. All four rowers set personal-best times.
As a team, OPRA finished fifth in overall points with the 12th-largest number of entries. Complete results are available at http://tinyurl.com/NWErgomaniaResults.
With the winter competitive season now finished, this is a time for new rowers to join. The youth program is open to seventh through 12th graders, and there are separate programs for adults and fourth through sixth graders.
The elementary school program will begin on March 12. Adults and youth can start indoors now and progress to rowing on the water in mid-March. There are several races throughout the spring and practices five days per week for rowers who want to compete, yet recreational rowing is also an option with practices 3 days per week. More information is available at PArowing.org or by emailing RowWithOPRA@outlook.com.
