Rowing Towards Success: Sophomores Nithmi Walpitage and Sage Lickteig spend their time competitively rowing for Kansas City Rowing Club

The sky is still pitch black and the streetlamps outside shine a yellow hue —  the clock reads 6 a.m. While most of their friends are enjoying sleeping in on the weekends, sophomores Nithmi Walpitage and Sage Lickteig are wide awake and heading out to their weekly Saturday morning rowing practice. 

After their 45-minute car ride to Wyandotte Lake, the girls have 15 minutes to spare before their two-hour practice.

“It’ll still be dark out when we’re getting [the equipment] out but it’s just so much fun,” Walpitage said. “Just early morning just being out in nature.”

In her freshman-year gym class, Walpitage asked Lickteig if she’d be interested in trying out competitive rowing with her. Lickteig had heard that rowing was a good sport for college scholarships, and she agreed. 

After looking online for local rowing clubs, the two settled on the first rowing club they found — Kansas City Rowing Club — and started on a 20-person team as soon as they could. 

The girls started practicing biweekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at KCRC in the winter of 2023 — which happened to also be the rowing off-season. The team couldn’t practice on the water because of the cold, so Walpitage and Lickteig spent their first months on the ergs practicing their technique and building strength.  

“Erging is a lot harder than rowing on the water because it’s a lot more training-focused where you’re trying to build muscle,” Lickteig said. 

Once the weather warmed up and the official rowing season kicked off in the spring, the girls were finally able to start training on the water. This allowed them to learn how to work the boats, making sure they didn’t tip over. 

“You have to think about your movements, but also, you have to balance a boat,” Walpitage said. “You also have to balance your hands and make sure they’re going simultaneously.”

Warmer weather came with an additional day of practices for Walpitage and Lickteig at 7 a.m on Saturday mornings.

Before these practices even start, the team has to get the boats ready for rowing, which takes the whole team around 30 minutes. The team will go down to the boatyard, unstrap the boat from their racks and carry the boats to the water. After that, they will get the boats assembled with the foot pedals, gates and seats. Once all boats are ready the team will begin their rowing practice. 

These practices consist of many different drills and sets including a steady state, where the boat will stay at a consistent pace for a specific time interval, or race pieces when the team practices at high-level speeds. 

“I love race pieces,” Lickteig said. “Doing normal practices is so difficult for me, but when we have race pieces it feels so good.” 

All the work Walpitage and Lickteig put into rowing pays off in the regattas their team has. These typically take place in the spring through the fall and Walpitage and Lickteig will go against 10-15 other teams around the country. 

The teams can compete in several different rowing events including singles, doubles and quads — which is dependent on the number of people rowing. Walpitage prefers competing in a double whereas Lickteig prefers competing alone in a solo boat. 

Lickteig and Walpitage’s main goal in these regattas is to decrease their times. Currently, Lickteig hopes to drop her 2K single boat race by 30 seconds.

“Runner’s high is like a different level for rowing,” Lickteig said “You’re gonna be eight minutes in, you’re going to be done and it feels like you feel better than anything else in the world.”

When racing, the different teams start at different times, the team is unable to know what place they hold while racing. They are forced to keep pushing themselves until the very end of the race.

“It’s way more mental than physical,” Lickteig said. “You’re gonna have to work really hard no matter what.” 

Both Walpitage and Lickteig plan to continue rowing, hoping to go to the collegiate level for the sport one day. 

“If I stick with it, I’ll have it for the rest of my life and I can do it even when I’m way older, which is amazing,” Walpitage said.