Pocock Rowing Center's Anna Mickelson and partner Megan Cooke rowed to a 1.8 second women's pair victory over the Princeton / Vesper Boat Club's Caryn Davies and Carolyn Lind on Sunday to earn a bid for the 2007 U.S. National Rowing Team at the USRowing National Selection Regatta on Mercer Lake near Princeton, N.J.
The Seattle crew, which met the U.S. time standard, will make a decision on whether to accept the bid following their first international competition of the summer at the FISA Rowing World Cup stop, June 1 - 3 in Linz - Ottensheim, Austria. The deadline for NSR winners to accept bids for the team that will represent the United States at the 2007 FISA World Rowing Championships Aug. 26 - Sept. 2 in Munich, Germany, is July 17.
Mickelson, a 2004 Olympic silver medalist and current world champion in the women's eight and former University of Washington rower, is expected to compete on her 7th U.S. national team this summer, and Cooke, a three-time U.S. team member out of Cal, controlled the 2,000 meter race from start to finish. The two built more than a two-second, open water lead in the first 1,000 meters. Davies and Lind finished second with a time of 7:08.99, followed by Lindsay Shoop and Anna Goodale also of Princeton in 7:12.18.
"Having open water surprised me," said Mickelson, who along with her teammates that set a world's best time on the way to the 2006 world championship in the eight, has been training in the smaller, more athletic pairs since the first of the year to improve boat speed. "Top to bottom we're so much stronger this year. We really haven't had a front runner all spring," she said. "I'm really excited not to have to race my teammates any more. Bring on the world."
In other NSR action for Seattle-area rowers, Pocock's Lia Pernell and partner Liane Malcos dropped their U.S. team bid in the women's double sculls by just under 3 seconds to Ala Piotrowski and Jennifer Kaido of the Princeton Training Center and Saugatuck Rowing Club. Piotrowski and Kaido clocked a 7:01.78 for the win and the right to accept a bid to represent the U.S. at this summer's world championships. Pernell and Malcos clocked a 7:04.36 for second place followed by Potomac Boat Club's Margot Shumway and former Pocock rower Reilly Dampeer in 7:09.59.
In the closest racing of the day, former UW rower Brett Newlin and partner Josh Inman rowed to a 6:35.71 fourth place finish in men's pair competition, just a over a half-second behind winners Patrick O'Dunne and Dan Beery of the Caspersen Training Center. In the event which did not have national team implications, O'Dunne and Beery clocked a 6:35.15 edging teammates Beau Hoopman and Matt Schnobrich by just 0.04 seconds. Hoopman and Schnobrich crossed the finish line with a second place 6:35.19. Caspersen Training Center's Dan Walsh and Steven Coppola finished third in 6:35.60. Former Huskies rower Giuseppe Lanzone and partner Alex Hearne were fifth followed by former Husky Scott Gault and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Bryan Volpenhein in sixth. Former Husky Sam Burns and partner Wyatt Allen won the B-level final to finish 7th overall in the event.
In the lightweight women's double sculls, Pocock's Erin Burton and Michelle Trannel finished sixth. The event was won by Vesper Boat Club's Jana Heere and Wendy Campanella in 7:04.96.
Other NSR winners include Caspersen Training Center's Matt Muffelman and Pat Todd in the lightweight men's pair and Caspersen's Mathew Hughes and Sam Stitt in the men's double sculls. 2000 Olympian Ian McGowan of Snohomish, Wash. finished second in the B-level final of the men's double sculls for eighth place overall in the event.