photo by: Contributed

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks shared this photo on social media of the KU rowing team's dock at Clinton Lake.

After a dam failure affected their normal practice site, the University of Kansas rowing team will be practicing at Clinton Lake, and people with small boats will be able to use the dock they’ve set up, as well.

A post on Clinton State Park’s social media page said that the rowing team would be practicing at the lake because of some “unexpected circumstances.” It didn’t say what those were, but there have been disruptions recently on the Kansas River, where the team’s boathouse is. As the Journal-World reported, water levels fell on the river because of a failure of the Bowersock Dam, and that was expected to cause significant disruption to KU rowing activities.

The post said the team had brought its own dock to the lake for launching boats so as not to obstruct the existing docks and boat ramps, and that this dock would also be open to the public. The dock is located at Boat Ramp 1, which is off of East 800 Road to the northeast of the marina.

“If you have a small vessel like a kayak or canoe, head over to Boat Ramp 1!” the post read. “That courtesy dock is hidden just below the restroom — and the KU Rowing Team insisted that while it’s in the water, it is open for our community to use!”

The Journal-World reached out to Kansas Athletics about the change in practice location, including how long the dock would be at the lake, but hadn’t heard back as of Wednesday afternoon. The rowing team posted Tuesday on social media that it had just held its first practice of the season.

On Facebook, the state park also warned boaters to watch out for the rowers and give them plenty of room to operate. It said that rowing shells are fast and aren’t able to stop abruptly.

“Rock Chalk Jayhawks, and see you on the water!” it said.