Five U.S. crews will race for medals during Sunday's finals at the 2006 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Hazewinkel, Belgium, including the women's pair, lightweight men's quadruple sculls, men's four with coxswain, women's eight, and men's eight
The women's eight of coxswain Katelin Snyder (Winter Park, Fla.), Genevra Stone (Newton, Mass.), Devan Darby (Virginia Beach, Va.), Esther Lofgren (Newport Beach, Calif.), Megan Smith (Templeton, Calif.), Kate Davison (Bedford, N.H.), Kady Glessner (Seattle, Wash.), Kerry Birk (Scottsdale, Ariz.), and Anne Kennedy (Mt. Vision, N.Y.) clocked the fastest time of the heats en route to Sunday's final. The crew will take on Romania, Belarus, Germany, Russia, and Australia in tomorrow's race.
The lightweight men's quadruple sculls quartet of Brian de Regt (Rowayton, Conn.), Daniel Feldman (Miami, Fla.), Jon Winter (New Haven, Conn.), and Richard Klein (Westport, Conn.) also won its heat to advance directly to Sunday's final. The crew will take on Russia, Australia, Italy, Germany, and France.
Stesha Carle (Long Beach, Calif.) and Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich.) advanced to the finals of the women's pair by winning their repechage, or second-chance race, on Friday. Carle and Tomek will take on heat winners Australia and Romania, as well as Belarus, Germany, and the Netherlands, in Sunday's final.
The men's eight of coxswain Jimmy Germano (Pomona, N.J.), Will England (Marblehead, Mass.), Nate Rooks (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), Ben Harrison (Dedham, Mass.), Andrew Boston (Signal Mountain, Tenn.), Jake Cornelius (Brooktondale, N.Y.), Andrew Kaufman (Appleton, Wis.), Jesse Johnson (Mercer Island, Wash.), and Alex Hearne (Princeton, N.J.) finished second in its repechage on Friday to advance to the final. The crew will take on Canada, Germany, Romania, Italy, and Poland on Sunday.
Chase Phillips (Woodbridge, Va.), Kevin Baum (Potomac, Md.), Max Vice-Reshel (Milwaukee, Wis.), Will Miller (Duxbury, Mass.), and Vince McCall (Newton Square, Pa.) finished second in their repechage of the men's four with coxswain on Friday. They will take on Australia, Romania, New Zealand, Great Britain, and Italy in the final.
On Saturday, the U.S. had four crews competing in Hazewinkel. The lightweight men's four of Greg McKallagat (Andover, Mass.), Pat Ruby (Watertown, Conn.), Scott Wallen (Woodbridge, Va.), and Andrew Diebold (North Wales, Pa.) just missed a spot in the final by finishing fourth in its semifinal. Racing in the second of two semis, the U.S. boat clocked a 6:41.47 to finish 2.4 seconds behind third-place Great Britain. Germany won the race with a time of 6:36.76, with Austria finishing second in a 6:38.31. Italy, Greece, and France advanced from the first semifinal. The U.S. will now race in a Sunday's B final, which will determine places 7-12.
Heather Johnson (Portland, Ore.) finished sixth in her semifinal of the lightweight women's single sculls and will now race in Sunday's B final. Racing in the first of two semifinals, Johnson sat in fifth place for most of the race and was never able to challenge for a top-three position and a spot in the final. Johnson clocked an 8:26.07. Great Britain's Sophie Hosking won the race with a time of 8:13.23.
Ted Sobolewski (Williamsville, N.Y.), Patrick Sullivan (Hingham, Mass.), Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.), and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished second in the C final of the men's quadruple sculls for a 14th-place overall finish. The quartet battled Belarus the entire way down the course, taking a slight advantage with 500 meters to go. However, Belarus was able to regain the lead during the final quarter of the race and crossed the finish line 0.74 seconds ahead of the United States. Belarus clocked a 6:06.84, while the U.S. finished with a time of 6:09.58. Great Britain finished third.
James Dietz II (Amherst, Mass.) finished third in the C final of the men's single sculls for a 15th-place finish overall. Dietz held the third position all the way down the course, clocking a 7:24.79. Valentinos Sofokleous of Cyprus won the race with a time of 7:18.57. Dietz reached the C final by winning his C/D semifinal earlier in the morning. He finished with a time of 7:11.98 in that race.