PRINCETON, N.J. - The final selection event for crews hoping to compete at the 2015 World Rowing Championships is scheduled to begin Sunday, August 2, on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.
The 2015 Senior World Championships Trials II will feature events in four men's categories, the single sculls, double sculls, pair and quadruple sculls. They are the last crews to be selected before the full team is named from the USRowing Training Center camps.
Ten crews have already been named to the team that will compete August 29-Sept. 6, 2015, in Aiguebelette, France from either world rowing cup performances or the Senior I World Championships Trials. Seven crews were selected in the first trials including the lightweight men's and women's single sculls, men's pair with coxswain, lightweight men's pair, lightweight men and women's quadruple sculls and the lightweight men's eight.
In addition, five crews that won national selection events and have earned and accepted nominations from world cup performances were named to the team including the women's single sculls, women's pair, women's double sculls and the lightweight men's and women's double sculls.
There are 12 scullers registered to race in the men's singles sculls trials, including three from the California Rowing Club, three from Community Rowing, Inc., one from the Craftsbury Sculling Center, two from Potomac Boat Club and three unaffiliated, including two-time Olympian Ken Jurkowski (New Fairfield, Conn.). Jurkowski finished 16th overall at the 2015 World Rowing Cup 3 in Lucernce, Switzerland in July.
Also among the competitors is Craftsbury's Tom Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio.) Graves last rowed on the senior team in the men's double sculls where he finished 16th.
In the men's double sculls, there are three crews entered, including one from CRC, one from Potomac and Craftsbury's John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Benjamin Dann (Pound Ridge, N.Y.).
Graves and Dann won their national selection regatta and competed in world cups 2 and 3, but did not finish high enough in the field to have won a nomination to the team.
The men's pair will have also have five crews racing including two USRowing training center crews including, USTC - Princeton's Ross James (DeKalb, Ill.) and Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.). Both James and Munn competed at world cup 2 in June.
James finished fifth in the pair and Munn was in the eight that took bronze. Rowing in the USTC - Oklahoma City entry are London Olympian Robin Prendes (Miami, Fla.) and Peter Gibson (Belmont, Mass.). Prendes won a silver medal in the lightweight four at the 2015 Pan American Games and was in the lightweight four that finished 13th at the 2012 Olympics. Gibson won silver in the lightweight four at the Pan American Games and fifth in the lightweight eight at the 2014 world championships.
Four past national team athletes are also entered. Rowing for the Vesper Boat Club are London Olympian Steve Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.) and 2014 men's single sculler Yohann Rigogne (Besançon, France.) Rigogne recently competed in the Pan American Games in the single and finished fourth. Rowing in an unaffiliated crew is Michael Disanto (Boston, Mass.). Disanto finished 14th in the pair at the 2013 World Rowing Championships.
The men's quadruple sculls event will have two crews racing. Craftsbury has entered the crew of London Olympian Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), William Cowles (Farmington, Conn.), Erik Frid (Madbury, N.H.) and Stephen Whelpley (Mequon, Wis.).
Graves and Whelpley were in the quad that finished eighth at the 2014 World Rowing Championships. Cowles represented the U.S. at world cup 2 where he finished 11th in the single sculls. Fred finished 14th in the double at the 2014 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
Rowing against the Craftsbury crew is the CRC crew of Ian Silveira (West Bloomfield, Mich.), Hans Struzyna (Kirkland, Wash.), John Madura (West Milford, N.J.) and Derek Johnson (Hillsborough, Calif.).
Siveria finished 16th in the double sculls at world cup 2, 20th in the double at the 2014 world championships and won bronze in the eight at the 2013 world championships. Struzyna finished 12th in the quad at world cup 2 and 13th in the event at the 2013 world championships, Madura also finished 12th in the quad at world cup 2. Johnson finished 16th in the double at world cup 2 and 13th in the quad at the 2013 world championships.