PRINCETON, N.J. -- Four boats officially accepted their spots on the 2006 World Championships Team, USRowing announced Wednesday.
The seven athletes from the women's single sculls, women's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls, and women's pair, who had until July 11 to accept their spots on the team, become the first rowers to be named to the 2006 National Team.
The women's pair of Anna Mickelson (Bellevue, Wash.) and Megan Cooke (Los Gatos, Calif.) earned its spot on the team at the second National Selection Regatta. Earlier this month, the pair won gold at the world cup stop in Lucerne, Switzerland. Mickelson is a six-time senior national team member who won a silver medal in the women's eight at the 2004 Olympic Games. Cooke is a three-time senior national team member.
Michelle Guerette (Bristol, Conn.) won the women's single sculls at the first National Selection Regatta. Guerrette, a six-time senior national team member, won the bronze medal in the event at the 2005 World Championships and placed fifth at two of the world cup stops earlier this season. A 2004 Olympian, she placed fifth in the women's quadruple sculls in Athens.
The lightweight women's double sculls tandem of Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) and Renee Hykel (Haverford, Pa.) earned its spot on the team at the second National Selection Regatta. Nichols and Hykel, who are both four-time national team members, won silver in the event at the 2005 World Championships. The duo claimed the bronze medal at the recent world cup event in Lucerne.
Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.) and Brett Sickler (Los Gatos, Calif.) won the women's double sculls at the second National Selection Regatta as well. Francia, a two-time national team member, and Sickler, a first-time senior national team member, raced at the world cup stops in Munich and Lucerne, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.
The 2006 FISA World Rowing Championships are scheduled for August 20-27 in Eton, England. The remainder of the U.S. team will be named by early August. Thirteen boats will be selected at the 2006 World Championships Team Trials scheduled for July 31-August 5. The six camp boats will be named on July 30.