WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - The quest for a trip to the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia for 13 crews began this morning on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.
In contention at the 2011 Senior World Championship Trials are five Olympic events, including the women's single sculls, men's double sculls, men's pair, women's pair and lightweight men's double sculls and seven non-Olympic events including the lightweight men's single sculls, lightweight women's single sculls, lightweight men's pair, men's pair with coxswain, lightweight men's quadruple sculls, lightweight women's quadruple sculls and the women's four. The lightweight men's eight is rowing uncontested.
In the first event of the morning, the women's pair, only two crews were entered. USRowing Training Center-Princeton's entry of Kady Glessner (Seattle, Wash.) and Caryn Davies (Ithaca, N.Y.) defeated Vesper Boat Club's Shannon Kaplan (Aloha, Ore.) and Christina Meyer (Saline, Mich.) by 17.24 seconds with a time of 7:19.13. Both boats will race in Thursday's final.
The men's pair has seven entries. Advancing out of the heats to the final were the USRowing Training Center-Oklahoma City's entries of Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.) and Justin Stangel (Madison, Wis.), and Silas Stafford (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Ryan Monaghan (Pittsford, N.Y.). Peszek and Stangel had the best time of the morning, finishing in 6:33.01.
Advancing out of the first heat in the men's double sculls was Craftsbury Sculling Center brothers Tom and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) with a time of 6:23.62, followed in the second heat by USTC-Chula Vista's Wes Piermarini (West Brookfield, Mass.) and Jamie Koven (Green Village, N.Y.) with a time of 6:22.69.
In one of the most competitive events of the trials, the women's single sculls, Cambridge Boat Club's Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.) and Union Boat Club's Mae Joyce Gay (Greenville, S.C.) both advanced out of the first heat. Stone had the best time of the three heats with a 7:43.09.
In the second heat, Penn AC Rowing Association's Catherine Reddick (Birmingham, Ala.) and Vesper Boat Club's Megan Walsh (Charlotte, N.C.) both advanced, followed in the third heat by Margot Shumway (Westlake, Ohio) of Potomac Boat Club and Seattle Rowing Center's Lindsay Meyer (Seattle, Wash.).
Racing for lane assignments in the final of the lightweight women's single sculls is Lake Union Crew's Ursula Grobler (Pretoria, South Africa). Grobler clocked the fastest time of the three entries with a 7:46.80.
With thirteen entries, the lightweight men's single sculls took four heats to begin to sort out the field for the finals.
Advancing this morning were Undine Boat Club's Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg (Philadelphia, Pa.), Riverside Boat Club's Andrew Hashway (Watertown, Mass.), Colorado Rowing's Greg Ruckman (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Cambridge Boat Club's Andrew Campbell (New Canaan, Conn.).
Urevick-Ackelsberg, who represented the United States at last year's world championships in the event, rowed the best time of the morning with a 7:05.73.
With only four entries, the men's pair with coxswain event was also a race for lanes. Rowing the best time of the morning with a 7:17.96 was the USRTC-Oklahoma City's crew of Marcus McElhenney (Lansdowne, Pa.), Brandon Shald (Sausalito, Calif.) and Brad Bertoldo (San Jose, Calif.).
In the lightweight men's double sculls race for lane assignments, GMS Rowing Center's Brian de Regt (Rowayton, Conn.) and Jon Winter (New Haven, Conn.) finished with a best time of 6:23.94.
The lightweight men's pair followed with two entries. The Riverside crew of Phillip Grisdela (Great Falls, Va.) and Phillip Henson (Somerset, N.J.) had the fastest time with a 6:53.11.
With only one entry, the lightweight men's eight USTC-Oklahoma City/Hanover Training Camp composite crew of coxswain John Carlson (Belmont, Mass.), Jimmy Sopko (Mathews, Va.), Kenny McMahon (Ladysmith, Wis.), Christian Klein (Herndon, Va.), Will Newell (Weston Conn.), Edward King (Ironton, Mo.), Matt Kochem (Burnt Hills, N.Y.) and Austin Meyer (Cohoes, N.Y.) rowed the course and clocked in with a time of 5:55.86.
In the lightweight men's quadruple sculls, the Vesper/Riverside composite entry of Dan Scholz (Springfield, Ore.), Matt Bokermann (Rockford, Ill.), Dorian Webber (Boston, Mass.) and John Kapteyn (Atlanta, Ga.) clocked the best time of the three entries with a 6:07.60.
The lightweight women's quadruple sculls had two entries with the USTC-Oklahoma City/Pocock Rowing Center/Riverside composite crew of Nicole Dinion (Falls Church, Va.), Hillary Saeger (Dedham, Mass.), Lindsey Hochman (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Katherine Robinson (Everett, Wash.) had the best time with a 6:39.43.
The women's four was the final event of the morning and featured three entries from USTC-Princeton. The crew of Eleanor Logan (Boothbay Harbor, Maine), Jamie Redman (Spokane, Wash.), Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.) and Esther Lofgren (Newport Beach, Calif.) had the fastest time with a 6:31.77.
Racing resumes this afternoon with repechages, followed by repechages and semifinals tomorrow morning. Finals in all events are scheduled for Thursday morning. Heat sheets and results are available at www.usrowing.org. Finals will be streamed live on http://rowing.teamusa.org/live.