By LEAH WEATHERSBY

For five days in July and August, 350 canoeists and kayakers paddled Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, Calif., 19 teams from around the country completed for the National Canoe and Kayak Championship. In the end, the team from Green Lake emerged victorious.

The team from Green Lake is the Seattle Canoe Club, a group made up of paddlers of all ages from North Seattle and beyond. The club, which formed in 1969, practices at Green Lake.

The Seattle Canoe Club took 15 amateur youth paddlers and 16 amateur adults to the competition to compete in several different ages divisions. Competitors paddled in canoes and kayaks carrying one, two or four people. In the end, the Seattle Canoe Club won the bantam division (for children 13 and under) and the senior division (for adults over 18.) Those two victories helped give the Seattle Canoe Club a combined point total of 421.75, almost 50 points ahead of the next closest team, hailing from Georgia. In addition, the Seattle Canoe Club won 91 individual medals, including 51 gold ones.

This is a first national championship for the Seattle canoe Club. Previously, the club's best year had been 1993 when they placed third overall and came in first in the youth divisions. Last year, the club placed fourth.

Eric Hughes, who at 78 is the club's oldest member, has been with the team from the beginning.

"I'm an old guy now, but back then I was young," said Hughes, remembering the days when the club was first founded by Ted Houk and Ben Dotson. Unlike the other paddling clubs in Seattle, the Seattle Canoe Club was founded as a racing organization to compete in flat water canoeing and kayaking. Houk was a doctor by trade, but a designer and builder of boats in his off-time. In fact, Houk was so good at his hobby that in the 1950s he designed a kayak that was considered the best in the world and was used by the US Olympic team. In the early days of the team some of the members got together a built most of club's boats.

Dotson and Houk were "getting on in years" when they founded the club and didn't stay with it long. However, Hughes and other members of the club carried on their legacy. In fact, Hughes himself recruited several of the club's current top paddlers.

Jordan Malloch, a Fremont resident, won eight races at the national championships in August. Hughes recruited him for the team when he was 12. Malloch, who his now in his mid-20s, attends the University of Washington and last year he competed in the Sydney Olympic games as a canoeist. He didn't bring home any metals, but Hughes said that hasn't been unusual for U.S. paddlers in recent years since flat water paddling events typically draw less interest in from U.S. athletes than from those in other countries.

Still, things are looking up for the sport. Kathy Colin, also a club member, just returned from the World Canoe and Kayak Championships held in Poland in late August where she placed fourth in kayaking in a two-person boat. She currently lives at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.

These accomplishments aren't just based on talent. Hughes said canoe club members practice five to six days a week after school and work. The canoe club also employees two part-time coaches, Chris Henderson and Dave Fort, both of whom still compete.

Hughes, who did not complete himself this year, was modest about his team's accomplishment.

"There are cycles - we just lucked out," Hughes said. "We just got a lot of top paddlers right at the same time. The bad news for the Seattle canoe club is that many of their "top paddlers" in the 11-13 division have gotten to old to compete at that age level. "We're recruiting the 11-13 group especially," said Hughes. "You have to replace them every year."

Paddling isn't an exclusively young person's sport by any means. Hughes said that the canoeing and kayaking demand a lot of strength in the upper body, and that sometimes come with age.

"It takes a tremendous amount of muscle," Hughes said. "People continue to get stronger until their early 30s"

The Seattle Canoe Club can usually be seen at practice on Green Lake on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. For more information call 684-4074. (