Rowing her way to the top
Kilgore's Laura Perkins finds a great pastime on UT rowing team
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com and from the UT website

PERKINS

Former Kilgore High School athletes have basically just made themselves at home at the University of Texas, and one former KHS standout has found her niche as a part of the rowing team.

Laura Perkins, the daughter of Kyle and Linda Perkins, is one of the reasons the Longhorns' rowing team is having success this year.

The UT varsity and novice rowing squads recently excelled at the 2008 Heart of Texas regatta on Lady Bird Lake near Austin, taking first place in each of its races. The Heart of Texas is a 1,000 meter sprint race held annually in March, which offers -1x, 4x, 2- and 8+ racing. The Austin Rowing Club first held the Heart of Texas Regatta in 1983 and the event has grown to include Masters and Junior events and a seven lane, fully buoyed course and state-of-theart starting platform. Over 500 boats competed at the 2008 Regatta.

The Longhorns entered two evenly balanced varsity eight boats and claimed first and second place in the women's open eight. The boat comprised of Perkins, coxswain Annie Heiner, stroke Alex Janss, Emilie Sallee, Jen Vander Maarel, Angela Kirchner, Danielle Bartz, Lindsay Foster, and Sara Cottingham posted a time of 3:18.6 to place first in the open eight.

COLLEGE WATER ADVENTURE 101 - Kilgore native Laura Perkins (the fifth rower from the front) is an important part of the rowing team at the University of Texas. The former Kilgore High School student athlete is a junior majoring in sports

Perkins, a junior at UT majoring in sports management, played several high school sports, including volleyball and soccer.

She's just one of several former KHS athletes at Texas.

• Pat McCrory (pitcher, shortstop) and Casey Whitmer (shortstop) both play for the UT baseball team, and Shelby Savony, a freshman, plays for the Longhorns' softball team (see the information box with updated statistics on McCrory, Whitmer and Savony with the beginning of this story on page 8).

• Eddie Jones (defensive end), Britt Mitchell and Michael Huey (both offensive linemen) play UT football.

And there are other athletes from the Kilgore area scattered throughout colleges in the South - Daniel Swaim is a punter at Texas A&MCommerce; Dana Deerinwater is also there, playing soccer; Lon Roberts is the starting center on the Louisiana Tech football team; Nick Sanders is a starting cornerback for the TCU football program; Wayne Daniels is a defensive end for the Horned Frogs; Coty Gatewood is a defensive lineman at Sam Houston State; Clint Toon is a quarterback at Texas State; several played at Kilgore College in this school year, and more are coming (Danny Smith is a KC football signee); Jaron Shepherd and Logan Chitwood are in the baseball program at Navarro; Ryan Whitmer walked on successfully for the football program at Texas A&M as an offensive lineman; Eric King and Rick Thomas just signed with Tyler Junior College; and Dominique Jones, a junior currently at KHS, has verbally committed to join the other former KHS standouts in Austin for the 'Horns.

A lot of those athletes left Kilgore already with plans to participate in collegiate sports.

Laura's journey to the rowing team, however, was not pre-planned.

"The spring of her freshman year," mom Linda explained, "she saw a flyer for Texas Crew, a college club rowing team in Austin. She tried out, made the team and really liked it. The next fall, she tried out for the UT women's rowing team and made it.

"She rowed on the novice team (like junior varsity) during the fall and was "called up" to the varsity team that spring (her sophomore year). Right now she is going through two-a-day spring training/workouts in Austin during spring break. They have three intensive practice sessions like this - the week before school, during Christmas break and spring

break. She's done pretty well for being a walkon with no previous experience. She's up against highly recruited women rowers who have had years of experience in high school."

Texas' other varsity eight boat of coxswain Mary Cait McPherson, stroke Rachel Lee, Callie Mattrisch, Meg George, Nancy Arrington, Jelena Zunic, Lianna Burton, Colleen Irby and Kellie Lunday finished second and registered a time of 3:19.9.

"Today was a long hard day of racing at the 1,000 meter distance," head coach Carie Graves said. "Most of our rowers raced in the two race, which meant that they raced four times today including their heats."

The Horns posted the top three times in the women's open pair with the team of Janss and Sallee posting a time of 3:59.0 and finishing first. The tandem of George and Lunday finished second in 4:04.3, while Vander Maarel and Arrington crossed the finish in 4:06.4 and placed third.

Texas posted a first and third place finish in the women's open four, with the crew of coxswain McPherson, Perkins, Mattrisch, Zunic and Abby Hahn finishing in 3:47.0 and placing first. The boat of coxswain Haley Schmidt, Whitney McMahon, Jessica Monroe, Ellen Haynes and Elizabeth Meserve took third and registered a time of 3:50.34.

"The Heart of Texas was a good warm-up and a confidence builder for regular season racing," Graves added. "We will begin boat selection for the remainder of the season this week."

Texas returns to the waters of Lady Bird Lake Friday, March 21 at the three-day Longhorn Invitational. Perkins and the Longhorns host Kansas the weekend of March 29, host Southern Methodist University April 5, and Cal on April 12. Road trips to Oklahoma City, Princeton, Chattenooga, Tenn., and Charlottesville, Va., are scheduled.

The 'Horns host the Big 12 Invitational in May, and the NCAA championships (at a locale not yet announced) begin the last weekend in May.

Linda Perkins is an eighth-grade teacher at Maude Laird Middle School. Kyle is a firefighter, and owns Baird Tire. They have a son, Travis, who played tennis at Kilgore, and is currently a freshman at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. Travis plays lacrosse on a club team at Harding.

If you know a former Kilgore-area athlete participating in college or pro sports programs, the Kilgore News Herald would like to hear from you. Call sports editor Mitch Lucas at (903) 984- 2593, or e-mail (sports@kilgorenewsherald.com).