St. Croix Falls native wins Olympic bronze

St. Croix Falls native Megan Kalmoe is the first Wisconsinite to win a medal at the Summer Olympics in London. She was part of a four-member U.S. rowing team that placed third in Wednesday morning’s final of the women’s quadruple sculls.

Kalmoe and her teammates received bronze medals with a time of six-minutes, 40.63 seconds for two thousand meters. They finished just over a second faster than fourth-place Australia.

Ukraine took the gold with a time of 6:35.93. Germany was second.

Meanwhile, former Wisconsin Badgers Grant and Ross James just barely missed out on a medal. Their U.S. men’s eight rowing team placed fourth in Wednesday morning’s final. Their time was 5:51.48, just three-tenths of a second behind third-place Great Britain, which earned the bronze.

Germany won the gold with a time of 5:48.75. Canada was second.

Brewers have a chance to sweep

The Milwaukee Brewers will try to sweep their first series in over two months when they close out a three-game home set against the Houston Astros Wednesday afternoon.

Rookie right-hander Mike Fiers will start against Astros’ righty Jordan Lyles. The first pitch is at 1:10 p.m. from Miller Park.

Fiers is 4-4 with a 1.77 ERA since being called up in May. He’s had the Majors’ lowest ERA since June 16, just 0.75 in eight appearances. Opponents have only been hitting .179 off Fiers during that stretch.

Fiers says he tries to throw as many strikes as he can and expand the strike zone after he gets batters to swing.

Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke says Fiers is deceptive in the way he changes speeds. He said Fiers has got the stuff to last in the Majors for a long time.

The Brewers have won three of their last five after crushing the Astros 10-1 Tuesday night. Houston has lost all but one of its last 22 road games.

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