Brest, Belarus, is probably not on the wish list of many American teenagers as their summer vacation destination. However, Clayton’s 19-year-old Kara Kohler is working day and night to earn a July trip 5,888 miles away to the Belarus city on the Poland border.

Kohler recently completed her freshman year at UC Berkeley, where she was a member of the women’s crew team and was named Pacific 10 Newcomer of the Year last month. Once school was over, she headed to San Diego and the U.S. Olympic Training Center with Cal teammates Elise Etem and Mary Jeghers. They are trying out among of group of 16 top rowers under 23 years old from throughout the country for spots on the USA National under 23 team for the World U23 Rowing Championships July 22-25 in Brest.

Kohler can become the latest Clayton athlete to represent America on the international stage. Diver Kristian Ipsen has won medals for the USA in China and Rome during the past year while bobsledder Chuck Berkeley and skier Daron Rahlves were both on the US Olympic team this winter in Vancouver.

Winning the Pac 10 Newcomer of the Year award is certainly fitting for Kohler, since she never participated in the sport of rowing before visiting Cal during her senior year at Clayton Valley High School on the advice of a family friend.

“I was looking for a college where I could swim when a friend suggested I check out Cal rowing. I eventually had an official visit there and met the coaches, team and observed a practice,” she recalls.

Kohler was told that swimmers often made a successful transition to rowing, a sport that values tall athletes – Kohler is an athletic 6-2.

“I wanted to go to a good school and play Division 1 sports. It was really daunting going to such a big school as Cal, but I’ve been able to hang,” Kohler says rather matter-of-factly. “The only people I knew at the school were Sam Walker (a fellow 2009 CVHS grad who was a standout as a freshman on the Cal soccer team) and a girl from my swim team (Crow Canyon Sharks). I had to learn how to budget my time and have more personal responsibility.”

Rigorous regimen.

The rowing team members train year-round. As soon as she started school last fall, she was immersed in fall rowing where the team does much longer competitive rows – up to 5,000 meters – than in the regular spring season, when races are 2,000 meters. Kohler quickly established her credentials and earned the sixth seat in the varsity eight boat.

“Lefthanders usually are naturally placed on the port side of the boat,” Kohler explains. Her performances on the ergometer (rowing machine) were strong from the start at Cal and were also used to help her gain an invite to the USA National team selection camp.

The Cal women’s team gained special notoriety this year as their coxswain, Jill Costello, led her team while battling cancer. The Golden Bears won their third straight Pacific 10 championship and then finished second to Virginia in the NCAA meet near Sacramento on Lake Natoma. Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport since Harvard and Yale held the first college race in 1852.

Cal head coach Dave O’Neill was named conference Coach of the Year and four members of the Bears also got All-America honors. Kohler was named to the second team All-America squad, quite an achievement for a novice rower.

In the pool at early age.

Kohler was a swimmer since she joined her three older sisters, Stacie, Kylie and Lindsay, on the Dana Hills Swim Team as an OtterPup when she was 3. When she was a freshman at Clayton Valley, Kohler became a member of the new Crow Canyon Sharks swim team.

“We only had eight swimmers, but I really liked coaches Ethan Hall and Dave Cottam,” she says in explaining why she chose that year-round US Swimming program rather than one closer to home.

Kohler swam with the Sharks throughout high school while competing for the Eagles varsity for four years. She hoped to continue her swimming career in college before rowing entered the picture.

Following her grueling sessions at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego (four hours a day in the water), Kohler headed to Princeton last week to continue the selection camp. She is shooting to gain a seat in the 8 boat for the USA. Cal teammate Jeghers was on the U23 team last year that finished second to Great Britain in the 2009 World Championships. The championships feature 600 athletes from 40 countries. “I’m feeling good about my performance so far,” Kohler said before departing for Princeton and training on Lake Mercer in New Jersey.

She has taken to heart the advice of her college coach O’Neill. “He has lots of international experience and told me to keep doing what I’m doing and everything will be fine,” the freshman protégé says.

Announcement of the American team will be made July 9 and then the team will prepare for that special summer trip to Belarus.