PITTSBURGH — Doing well in sports can take you places.

For Kelly Cesare, her talents are taking her down the river.

The 16-year-old, who just finished her sophomore year at Mars, has competed in rowing since the eighth grade.

Cesare took part in the Head of the Ohio competition in Pittsburgh last fall as a member of the All-City rowing team.

Since then, she has joined the Steel City squad.

"There weren't that many people of my age left on the All-City team," said Cesare. "Plus, Steel City has been doing very well, so I decided to join it."

Cesare and three teammates placed second at the Midwest Championships, held last month on the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

That effort is sending the quartet back to the Queen City for this weekend's U.S. Rowing Youth Nationals.

Cesare's teammates include a girl from Chartiers Valley High School, one from Allderdice and another from Shaler.

"The course will be the exact same distance that the Midwest Championships was, 2,000 meters," said Cesare.

Except this time, instead of facing some of the best rowing teams in the region, the Steel City foursome will be facing the best the entire United States has to offer.

"The country is divided into six regions," said Steel City coach Dori Tompa, "and the national event accepts either the top three or four from each region, depending on how big the region is."

"I believe if we place in the top three, we will go to the world championships in Amsterdam, (Netherlands) later this summer," said Cesare. "But I know it's going to be very difficult. There's going to be a lot of good teams there this weekend. I'm just hoping we do our best."

Cesare sits in the bow, or front position in the boat.

"My job is to steer the boat," she said. "I have to keep looking around to make sure we're not going to run into anything. And I have to tell the others in the boat if I think we have to go faster."

For casual observers, it might appear that a rower must have upper-body strength if nothing else.

But that's not the case.

"You do use your arms a lot when rowing, but most of the work actually comes from your legs," said Cesare.

Cesare is most comfortable rowing in a team setting, though she did experiment in a novice singles competition while at the Midwest Championships in May.

"I placed first," she said. "And I think it would be pretty cool to be able to compete consistently as an individual one day. But for now, I'm staying with the team competitions."

"Kelly is a very hard worker," said Tompa. "She's very committed and dedicated and that makes it easy to coach her."

Cesare is looking to hone her skills at a rowing camp this summer in Verona.

"If you have enough interest in rowing, the summer camps can be a lot of fun," said Tompa. "We're taking several trips this year as part of the camp, including ones to Indiana and New Jersey."