Kadie Brown has had one busy, successful summer. After winning a national title in June with her Commencement Bay Rowing Club teammates, Brown recently teamed with Florida’s Christine Cavallo to earn the silver medal in the women’s pair race at the World Rowing Junior Championships on Aug. 18 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

“It was completely surreal,” said Brown, who is from Federal Way and is a junior at Annie Wright. “We had been training for a year for this moment. The U.S. had never gotten better than sixth (in that event), so (we) actually made history. It was amazing. We had a blast, it was so much fun. That was definitely a moment I’ll remember forever.”

Brown began training with the United States junior team in Connecticut almost immediately after teaming with Kathleen Petrich, Courtney Thompson, Natalie Reetz and Aelish Lambert to win the 4+ (four with coxswain) race at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships on June 10 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The American duo faced a tough field at the world championships, including the defending champion Italian duo of Serena and Giorgia Lo Bue.

“We were in first for the first 1,800 meters of a 2,000-meter race,” said Brown, adding that while the Italians overtook them in the end, it did not dampen her excitement. “It was a great race.”

Brown and Cavallo finished in seven minutes and 47.32 seconds – less than five seconds away from the winners.

Brown recently returned and is training again with Commencement Bay six days a week, while also travelling up to Seattle to train on Saturdays.

“It’s a huge time commitment, but I love it, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” she said.

And while Brown is proud of her accomplishment, she eyes a return to the Junior National Championships next year to claim gold, and will look to continue advancing in the sport.

“The Olympics have always been my goal,” she said. “I’ll work very hard to get there.”