WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - The path to the senior national team and the 2015 World Rowing Championships has been a long and difficult one for John Graves and Ben Dann.
Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Dann (Pound Ridge, N.Y.) won the first national selection event in April and earned the right to compete at one of the two final World Rowing Cups. A top seven finish at either would have gained the Craftsbury Sculling Center double a nomination to the team that will compete at the 2015 World Rowing Championships, August 29-Sept. 6, 2015, in Aiguebelette, France.
But they did not qualify and had to come to Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. for a final chance to make the team at the 2015 Senior World Championships Trials II. And their efforts finally paid off.
Graves and Dann won the Wednesday final and were one of the last four crews named to the world championship team, including the men's single sculls, men's double sculls, men's pair and men's quadruple. The Craftsbury pair took the lead from the start and won in 6:22.94 over the California Rowing Club's entry of Paul Marcy (Brattleboro, Vt.) and Ryan Shelton (Whittier, Calif.), which finished in 6:31.61.
"We have definitely been on a journey together. There were a lot of hotel rooms," said Graves. "But it feels good to have a result that actually means we made the team and we can now prepare for worlds and get back to training and not just be waiting around to race, which we're both excited about," he said.
"This is just one of those steps on the way to our ultimate goal, which is the Olympics next year," said Dann. "We knew we had to check this off. I'm glad we did what we had to do today and get the job done and now it's time to get back to the classroom and sharpen our skills and get ready for the next battle."
The first to earn a spot on the team Wednesday morning was two-time Olympian Ken Jurkowski (New Fairfield, Conn.). Jurkowski rowed into the lead early with Craftsbury's Thomas Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) in close pursuit.
Graves pushed into the lead in the beginning of the second half of the race, but Jurkowski answered the attack and moved back in front and won in 6:54.93. Graves finished second in 6:55.93. California Rowing Club's Ryan Monaghan (Pittsford, N.Y.) was third in 7:09.48.
"It is really about being able to rise to the level of competition as it elevates throughout the regatta and there was a lot of competition at this regatta," said Jurkowski. "It was a challenge at every level. Now it's time to go through that final training cycle to get ready for world championships. Just trying to refine and work on the details even more to optimize my chances in France."
Next up was the pair final. The Vesper Boat Club crew of Yohann Rigogne (Besançon, France) and Steve Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.) were in the lead off the line, but were followed closely by the USTC - Princeton crew of Michael Disanto (Boston, Mass.) and Tim Aghai(Skokie, Ill.).
Disanto and Aghai passed Vesper about halfway through the course and appeared to be holding comfortably until USTC - Princeton's London Olympian Ross James (DeKalb, Ill.) and Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.) made a move in the second thousand meters and rowed from fourth to second.
The move made the finish interesting, but it was not enough to overcome Disanto and Aghai, who won in 6:29.04. James and Munn finished second in 6:31.96. The Craftsbury entry of Parker Washburn (Andover, Mass.) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Mass.) was third in 6:33.93.
"We just decided to keep our heads in the boat for the first half and then go in the second," said Aghai. "We did it and it worked out and we were able to push off the other boats and continued to build speed. We didn't count anyone out at all. You have Steve Kasprzyk, who is an Olympian, Ross James, an Olympian and Rob Munn, so we didn't back off at any point."
In the final event of the morning, CRC's quadruple sculls entry of Derek Johnson (Hillsborough, Calif.), John Madura (West Milford, N.J), Hans Struzyna (Kirkland, Wash.) and Ian Silviera (West Bloomfield, Mich.) went head-to-head with the Craftsbury crew of London Olympian Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), William Cowles (Farmington, Conn.), Erik Frid (Madbury, N.H.) and Stephen Whelpley (Mequon, Wis.).
CRC moved into the lead from the start but the two crews rowed stroke for stroke for nearly the length of the course. CRC won in 5:49.29 with Craftsbury finishing second in 5:52.63.
"We had a really good lead up since we have been here for a while," said Struzyna. "We have been here about seven or eight days now so that we could acclimate to the time and the weather, we did some practice pieces and we treated the time trial like a full race so we could get multiple times down the course at race pace. We knew based on those times that we needed to execute at that level," he said.
"We did a good job handling the time trial as a test for us," said Siveira. "It was the first chance for us at pulling a full two thousand meters for this lineup. Being able to handle those two days in between the trial and the final was good for us and we handled it really well."