Elite rowing team heads for city
Sep. 14—HIGH POINT — One of the best collegiate women's rowing teams in the world is coming to High Point in two weeks to compete on Oak Hollow Lake against teams from two North Carolina colleges.
But organizer Gene Kininmonth has a larger aim beyond this competition. He hopes that one day collegiate rowing teams become a common sight at the lake and in local hotels.
The event, the inaugural Lenny Peters Cup, will be a feature of the eighth High Point Autumn Rowing Festival on Sunday, Oct. 2. The festival itself was first held in 2014 but mostly has featured club teams. Last year's drew a higher-than-expected 200 team entries, and he hopes for about 300 this year.
"It's grown more than I generally expected it to," he said.
Having 300 teams would translate to about 4,000 people taking part, not counting any local spectators who might attend. Admission is free, and there will be music and food trucks in addition to the series of races throughout the day, Kininmonth said.
"It's a great event to bring your dog to, to bring kids to," he said.
The daylong event is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3700 Waterview Road. Waterview intersects with Skeet Club Road at the bridge, or you can reach it from Johnson Street by taking Old Mill Road.
The Lenny Peters Cup — so named because the Lenny Peters Foundation provided a grant to pay the travel stipends to lure the college teams — is scheduled to run at 11:30 a.m. featuring the internationally elite team from University of Cambridge, England, and teams from Duke University — which Kininmonth said is one of the best U.S. collegiate teams — and UNC Chapel Hill.
Kininmonth, who coached rowing at the University of Southern California before he and his wife, Amy MacArthur, moved here in 2008, said Oak Hollow Lake is a potential gem for the rowing world and that High Point city officials have been receptive to his efforts to promote it.
In fact, the city awarded a grant for Kininmonth to buy two of the three motorboats he says are needed to lure college teams to use the lake for training. The schools haul their own rowing boats on large trailers but need motorboats for the coaches.
He has set up a website to promote the lake to colleges in Northern states, where it's too cold in the spring to train, and he gets a few inquiries each month.
"And their first question is 'Do you have motorboats?' " he said. "We'll find a way to get three boats up and running for the spring."
He thinks at least 10 teams will sign on to come to Oak Hollow Lake in early 2023, each with dozens of athletes spending about a week here.
Kininmonth points to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as the model for what might develop. Each year, thousands of college athletes come to Oak Ridge's Melton Lake for training and regattas, according to regional tourism group Explore Oak Ridge.
Oak Hollow will have appeal because it is similar in size to Melton Lake, Kininmonth said, but Melton is part of a river and prone to flooding and strong currents after heavy rains, which prevents teams from rowing.
"It would take, really, a hurricane coming through to prevent any rowing in High Point," he said.
After a few years, "my real hope is we can put on really classy, signature events that High Point is really proud of and showcase the best of High Point," he said.
