Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 4, April 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Lake City scholar athlete

to row for Clemson

By JAMES BUSH

Elizabeth Jennings took a class on how to row before her freshman year at Holy Names Academy.

Four years later, she could probably teach the class.

The lifelong Lake City resident and standout rower has accepted athletic and academic scholarship offers from South Carolina's Clemson University, where she will begin classes in the fall.

The double-threat senior is not only a member of the girls' varsity eight boat at Holy Names, but a standout honor roll student who was named Salutorian for her class.

The Holy Names team won championships at the 2002 Northwest Regional Regatta and the US Rowing Junior Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio. More recently, the squad won medals at Boston's Head of the Charles Regatta.

The team spends a lot of time on the road as few area high schools have rowing programs (one notable exception is the North End's Lakeside School). "We travel all over," says Jennings. Rowing is a far higher-profile sport on the East Coast, she says. "You go to Boston and everyone you run into is a rower."

The Holy Names team works out daily at the Lake Union Crew house just south of the University Bridge, alternating stair workouts, weight training, and working out on high tech rowing machines that measure how hard rowers are pulling on the oars. "It's a constant struggle with the numbers on the screen," says Jennings.

Jennings, a three-year varsity rower at Holy Names, says she was a novice when she joined the freshman team. "I had seen a little bit of rowing before, but I didn't really know what it took," she says. "It's something that's so difficult to do and mentally and physically taxing." But the effort is worth it, she stresses. When she finishes a workout "I know that I've accomplished something."

Jennings visited both Clemson and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, before deciding which school to attend. She's not the only in-demand Holy Names rower; teammate Kady Glessner has accepted a scholarship offer from Boston's Northeastern University.

The 18-year-old Jennings attended Our Lady of the Lake School in Wedgwood before moving on to Holy Names. She volunteers at the University of Washington Medical Center and at Our Lady of the Lake Church.