Brainerd Lakes Rowing Club Competes at International Regatta in Canada

For the past three years, Brainerd has served as a home for the Brainerd Lakes Rowing Club, a local team of passionate rowers, and over the weekend, these rowers traveled away from the Land of 10,000 Lakes to compete in the Great White North.

“We went up to Kenora, Canada, for a regatta, which is just a fancy term for a rowing race,” explained Brainerd Lakes Rowing Club rower Gabe Hallgrin.

“This was the biggest group we had go to Canada, so that was pretty big for us as a club and that was a lot of fun,” added fellow rower Kate Haglin.

The weekend saw the club bring teams to compete in the Junior men’s and women’s divisions at the 118th Northwestern International Rowing Association Championship Regatta, where athletes participated in the Quad, Double, and Single Rower events.

“The amount of teams to race against were fun, the variety of the races were also fun,” said team rower Isaac Boesen.

“It was awesome, I mean, I was super proud,” said Brainerd Lakes Area Rowing Club coach Brooke Watland. “They did awesome, I mean, nobody flipped, nobody went swimming, so that’s always a good plus, they competed hard.”

That hard work seemed to have paid off, as some rowers moved high in the rankings, including Hallgren.

“He did get first place in his single race, so that was pretty awesome,” said Haglin.

“I won my heat, but then the finals were cancelled due to the wind,” added Hallgren.

Despite the weather, others in the rowing club placed favorably in the international regatta.

“Two of my teammates took third and fourth in the girls single, so that was pretty good, too,” explained Haglin.

Of course, now that the team has returned to their home rowing grounds, the question becomes, “Will they head back north next year?”

“Absolutely,” answered Watland. “This was like our championship race, so to continue working and hope we bring some first place finishes home next year would definitely be a big goal and something that I think is attainable.”

The Brainerd Lakes Rowing Club also hopes to expand its adult teams so that they too may compete in larger regattas in the years to come.