The Bear Cup Affiliate Rowing Challenge

CrossFit St. Louis rowers competed in the first annual Washington University affiliate rowing challenge this past Sunday, Feb 8th, 2015 and brought home the championship cup.  This competition was part of the St. Louis Indoor Rowing Sprints held at Wash U. each February.  Affiliate teams (CrossFit St. Louis and BarX Crossfit) competed in a number of events including the 2K, the 500m sprint, and the 2K relay.  Points were awarded for placing in these events.  The meet ran smoothly and was well organized by coach Stephen Harris of Wash U Rowing Club.  CrossFit STL had a handful of participants (Andy Melenbrink, Leeny Hoffmann, Nicole Kaupp, Erin Ely and Carli Tonner) who knocked themselves out to finish strong in these three events.

The first event was the 2K race.  Nicole Kaupp competed in the open women division and Leeny Hoffmann competed in the 40 and above Master’s division.  Because the affiliate 2K race was small, all athletes (open and masters) competed together.  Nicole and Leeny tied for first place with a time of 8:20.2.  Andy Melenbrink rowed in the Men’s division and killed the 2K with a sub 7 min time of 6:53.7.  That is a 1:43.4 split!  The St. Louis Row Club people wanted to talk to him after the race, that’s for sure.

 

We took a break and had lunch and the next race was the 500m sprint.  Erin Ely, Nicole and Leeny competed in this race in order to rack up a few more points.  Erin finish a strong race with a time of 1:41.2.  Nicole came in 4th place with an awesome time of 1:48.7 and Leeny finished just behind her with a 1:48.9.

There was minimal recovery time after the 500m and 20 minutes later we competed in the 2K relay.  Our team consisted of Erin, Leeny, Nicole and Carli Tonner.  It was BarX vs CFSTL and we missed first place by a few tenths of a second.  Verrrrry close!

It was a fun day of friendly competition between CFSTL and BarX and the athletes that participated rowed hard.  We are hoping for an even bigger event next year with more athletes competing to bring the cup home to their own gym.  Thanks to Stephen Harris for putting it all together!  When this rolls around next year, you won’t want to miss this competition.