PRINCETON, N.J. - With the majority of this year’s world championships’ team already named, racing to select the four remaining crews begins Monday at the 2014 Senior II World Championships Trials on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.
Racing will be contested in the men’s single sculls, men’s pair, men’s double sculls and lightweight women’s double sculls. The four winning crews will be added to the list of 80 athletes already named to the team that will compete in the 2014 World Rowing Championships August 24-31 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The men’s single sculls has the largest number of entries with nine competitors, among them Olympian Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.), who finished eighth in the pair at the 2012 Olympics. Peszek, rowing as an entry from the United States Training Center-Princeton, stroked the men’s eight to a bronze medal at the 2013 World Rowing Championships.
Also scheduled to race is California Rowing Club’s Ryan Shelton (Wrightwood, Calif.), who finished 13th in the quadruple sculls at the 2013 World Championships.
In the men’s double sculls, eight crews are scheduled to race including the duo of Willie Cowles (Farmington, Conn.) and Sam Stitt (McLean, Va.). Cowles and Stitt, a 2008 Olympian in the quadruple sculls and a seven-time national team member, won both the double and quad at the 2014 USRowing National Championships. In addition, Cowles won the single.
Other entries include USRowing TC-Princeton’s Ian Silveira (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and Alex Karwoski (Hollis, N.H.) and California Rowing Club’s Derek Johnson (Hillsborough, Calif.) and Hans Struzyna (Kirkland, Wash.) Silveira won bronze in the men’s eight at the 2013 World Championships, while Karwoski finished 14th in the men’s pair. Johnson and Struzyna both rowed in the quad at the 2013 worlds.
In the men’s pair, Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.), Olympic bronze medalists in the four, will take on four other crews, three of them from the Princeton Training Center including Ross James (DeKalb, Ill.) and David Eick (Oakland, Calif.). James finished fourth in the eight at the Olympics in London and won bronze in the eight at the 2013 World Championships.
Also entered are Taylor Brown (Winter Park, Fla.) and Henry Hoffstot (Ligonier, Pa.). Brown and Hoffstot have already been named to the 2014 team in the men’s pair with coxswain. They are racing as an entry from the Penn AC Rowing Association.
The smallest field, with only two crews entered, is the lightweight women’s double sculls. Olympian Kristin Hedstrom (Concord, Mass.) and Nancy Miles (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) are entered in the event as a composite crew from CRC and Seattle Rowing Center. Hedstrom finished 11th in the event at the 2012 Olympics and took silver at the 2013 World Championships. Miles rowed in the lightweight women’s quadruple sculls that also won a silver medal at the 2013 World Championships.
They will be going up against USRowing Training Center-Oklahoma City’s Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif.) and Devery Karz (Park City, Utah). Sechser and Karz won the event at the 2014 National Selection Regatta 2, and Sechser finished seventh in the lightweight single sculls at last year’s world championships.
Go here for complete event information.
Finals will be live-streamed Wednesday here.