The 2007 US Junior Trials concluded yesterday, with three of the six trials winners making the required time standard to compete at the Junior World Championships, which will be held on the 2008 Olympic racecourse in Beijing in July. James Hills won the men's single, Suzanne Maddamma of Steel City the women's single, and a composite women's double rowing as GMS of Erin Crawford and Taylor Fries won the women's double.

In the other three events, the men's double and men's and women's quads, trials winners were named, but none were able to meet the time standard. Of the three, the men's quad came closest - their time of 6:15.039 in the second final on Friday morning was within 0.040 seconds - that's four one-hundredths - of meeting the 6:14.anything standard. They took another shot at it on Friday evening, but missed by four seconds this time; tough way to go down.

The quad was a composite crew that came together this past week in thoroughly 21st century fashion; two members of the GMS squad looked up two single scullers who had done well at the Youth Invite on Facebook; the four convened in Mercer, had their first row together two days before the first final, and did their first 2k ever in the first final.

The men's double from Steel City raced the event unopposed, and perhaps the lack of a worth opponent made it tough to find the speed to beat the standard. Meanwhile, in the women's quad, three crews from GMS - GMS A, B, and C, duked it out for a couple days three across without beating the standard, finally leaving GMS A to give it one more shot Friday night, but they failed to pull it off. It turned out the crew's first run down the course resulted in its fastest time; fresh legs will do that.

An unfortunate prelude to the trials occurred when Stotesbury bronze medalist Austin Meyer was forced to scratch his entry due to a NY state regents exam he had to take at 10am in Staten Island. When he saw the conflict weeks ago, Meyer, who lives near Albany, petitioned NY State to allow him to find a high school near the racecourse to take the exam between races, and his request was granted. Then, when the final schedule came out, the usual early morning start time was changed to 11am accommodate the National Championships single time trials that took place on Thursday morning, among other things, as the time trial necessitated moving the racecourse starting docks. Meyer's request to move the racing either earlier or later in the day to allow him both to race and take the test, and return for the Friday morning final was denied, and he was forced to scratch his entry to be able to take the test. It's unfortunate that scheduling could not be changed to accommodate an academic requirement for an athlete from a public high school that is still in session.

After the racing, I talked to the newest members of the US junior team; here are some of their comments.

James Hills, Men's Single Scull
You beat time standard yesterday in the first final; how much did you beat it by?
Well, there are two time standards, one is 7:25, so that would be 14 seconds, and then the gold medal standard I beat by one second, which isn't bad, but I'll be trying to get a little better.

How long have you been sculling?
A year and a half maybe? I did some sweeping starting my sophomore year.

How did you start rowing?
Oh, boy... (laughs) In grade eight, I was biking down a hill, hit a ditch, fell off my bike, and broke my neck. (Shows scar from the crash). And I was told no contact sports for a very, very long time, so in grade nine I got into rowing. That's pretty much how I fell into rowing.

How did it start coming together for you?
I had one coach in grade 10 who was just fun - it's not that he didn't care about rowing hard, it's just that he wanted the kids to have fun, so the entire crew was relaxed and happy, and we were really tight, and that helped us do well.

Who was the coach?
It was Matthew Miller from St. Catharines. It was so much fun that it was more the fun that helped us win than height, weight, erg scores... We were the ugliest crew. We had one kid who was 6'6", one kid was 5'2", one kid was 240 pounds, another kid was 150. Everybody looked at us and was like, nah, they don't stand a chance.

Have you given a lot of thought to how you would size up racing internationally?
We've been doing some research on last year's results and who is going to be there this year, and it's going to take a lot of work, but we think we'll do okay. I'm not sure where we'll fit in, but it would be nice if we could do this (waves toward racecourse).

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Suzanne Maddamma, women's single

You beat time standard yesterday; was it tough?
Yeah, I had to work for it.

And you beat it again today?
Yeah, by about four seconds I think.

How did you get started in sculling?
I tried to do it with a team when I was 12 at my school, I thought I wanted to try it out.

So you just walked on? Were you involved in sports before that?
I played basketball and softball, but gave them up when I started rowing.

How long have you been in the single?
I think three years now.

Did you do sweep rowing before that?
I started out with sweep when I first started rowing, for about a year, then I moved into the single.

Why did you switch?
I liked being like alone. I was the fastest girl on my team, so I just wanted to do something on my own.

When did you start getting fast in the single to the point where you thought you could do this (trials)?
I guess my sophomore year, when I went to the Youth Invites. I thought I could do a lot better with two more years to work for it.

So you had this in mind at that time?
Yeah, this has been my dream for the past year.

What do you think about the trip, the long flight, the whole thing?
Ah, it's a bit overwhelming, but I really can't wait.

How do you think you can do?
Hopefully top three! I hope I can medal.

How is your Chinese?
Oh, horrible, horrible. I've taken Spanish for two years and I really don't know any of it!

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Erin Crawford and Taylor Fries, women's double

How did your double come together?
Erin Crawford: I'm from Phoenix, she's from Connecticut, so back in? April?

Taylor Fries: February!

Erin: February - whatever! So back in February they came out to train with us and race us, and we qualified the boat for Cincinnati, and so did they, and our coaches decided afterward to come straight back to Connecticut to put some boats together for trials.

So how did you get selected as the final double from this group?
Erin: First thing was the single time trial, then there was an erg test, and we were the top two in both of those?

Taylor: I was not?

Erin: weight-adjusted you were; weight-adjusted you were first!

Taylor Fries: I will admit that it is true.

How long been rowing the double together?
Erin: About a week!

Were you surprised you could meet the standard?
Both: laughing - Yeah?

Coach: That was the first 2k they had ever rowed together, their first whole actual 2k.

Erin: We did 1k of race pieces, that was all.

With a second row, were you faster or slower today?
Taylor: We were slower? by about 10 seconds.

Coach: Also knew they just needed to win.

How did you start rowing?
Taylor: I started rowing as cross-training for soccer, and then decided I didn't want to play soccer for my high school team, which wasn't quite up to my standards, so I started rowing.

When was that?
Taylor: I stopped playing soccer after eighth grade, so it was my freshman year, actually.

Have you been sculling the whole time, or did you do sweep rowing?
Taylor: Both on and off, depending on the season and who was around.

How did you end up in the single?
Taylor: Back in the day, I just went out... It was just kind of what we did.

Erin: I started rowing because I was looking for something to do with my spring. I have always loved sports, so my freshman year, in the fall I played volleyball and in the winter I played soccer, and in the spring my choices were baseball, track, or crew. So I thought hey I'll try crew, and I got hooked.

Have you sculled the whole time?
Erin: No; first I was on starboard, then I was on port, then I switched to sculling. I switched to sculling because my coach decided to put me with my doubles partner instead of putting us in a four, because we about 10-15 seconds ahead of everybody else, so he just decided to put us in a double.

So when you put together this double, was it fast right away?
Both laugh: Uh?

Taylor: Believe me, I'd just like to say for the record that I feel comfortable saying it was my fault entirely. I just wasn't that good at following right away, so it took me a little while.

How long until it came together?
Erin: Uh, at least a day and a half!

Well, that's not bad; they say that doubles are born, not made, so a day and a half is a pretty quick turnaround. What did you do to make it work?

Taylor: I just told Erin to keep doing the same thing and give me some time, and I would figure it out, figure out how to follow.