Lake Oswego's Lisa Schlenker and Rose City Rowing Club's Britton Nixon finished third in the lightweight women's double sculls on Sunday at the USRowing National Selection Regatta on Mercer Lake near Princeton, N.J. dropping their bid for a U.S. team berth in the event.
The Portland-area duo clocked a 7:15.04 on the 2,000 meter Mercer Lake course. The event was won by Vesper Boat Club's Jana Heere and Wendy Campanella defeated Philadelphia rivals Julie Nichols and Renee Hykell of Penn AC by just under four seconds. The Vesper double grabbed a 1.26-second lead at the midway point before pulling away from Nichols and Hykel for the win. Nichols and Hykel clocked a 7:08.08. Penn AC's time of 7:04.96 met the time standard necessary for Heere and Campanella to qualify for the U.S. team that will compete at the 2007 World Rowing Championship, Aug. 26 - Sept. 2 in Munich, Germany.
The third place finish means that Schlenker, a 10-time U.S. national team member and Nixon, who is vying for her first, will now regroup and consider their options for the five remaining seats available to lightweight women scullers on the U.S. team that will race in Munich.
"This is very premature but we're looking at every possibility that will best suit us as individuals and as a team," said Schlenker, 42, who is hoping to make her 11th consecutive U.S. National Rowing Team this summer. "Right now we're considering the double for the Pan Am Games which will be decided at the end of May. The lightweight single (that will compete at the world championships) will be decided at U.S. trials (July 20 - Aug. 3) and the lightweight quadruple sculls (also a world championships boat) is also a possibility," she said. "We're going to evaluate all of our options."
Schlenker, who competes for the New York Athletic Club, is a Portland State University and Lake Oswego High school graduate. She finished 6th in the lightweight women's single sculls at the 2006 World Rowing Championships and represented the U.S. at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games