The U.S. women's eight finished third, while the B final crews had solid efforts on the final day of racing at the 2011 World Rowing Junior Championships in Eton, England.
In the B finals, the women's double sculls recorded a best ever, ninth-place finish, while the men's pair finished a strong eighth and the men's quadruple sculls reached the top 10 for only the second time in the last 35 years.
The women's eight entered the three-boat final with only a seeding heat under its belt. Both Germany and Romania had shown strong starts in the race for lanes, so the U.S. crew of coxswain Christine Devlin (Harvard, Mass.), Abbie Young (Centerville, Mass.), Charlotte Passot (Mill Valley, Calif.), Maddie Wolf (Mill Valley, Calif.), Georgia Ratcliff (Vienna, Va.), Caitlin Byrnes (Ross, Calif.), Logan Harris (Stinson Beach, Calif.), Katie Toothman (Waynesburg, Pa.) and Deirdre Fitzpatrick (Cheshire, Conn.) knew it would need to have a strong middle 1,000 meters to keep in the hunt. Unfortunately, the U.S. dropped four seconds to Romania in the first 500 meters and could never close the gap for the top two spots.
"We knew we'd be down off the start," Devlin said. "We had these moves at the 500 and 1,000 meter marks that we thought we're going to get it. But, (Germany and Romania) brought their 'A' games, and they went above and beyond what I think we could have gone. They rowed their hearts out, and I don't think we could have gone any harder. So, no disappointment. We put it all out there, and they were just the better crews."
Romania went hard off the start to establish about a boat-length lead in the first 1,000 meters. They continued to lead through the 1,500-meter mark before Germany sped past, clocking a 6:20.16 to win the gold medal. Romania finished second in a 6:23.66, with the U.S. crossing in third with a time of 6:32.28.
The men's pair of Michael Evans (Portland, Ore.) and Austen Bolves (North Bend, Wash.) capped off a solid regatta with a second-place finish in the B final for eighth place overall. After getting off the line in fourth position, Evans and Bolves rowed through France and Great Britain in the second 500 meters to move into second place. In the second half of the race, the U.S. tried to track down the leading crew from Bulgaria. However, the Bulgarians were able to maintain their two-second margin throughout the final 1,000 meters. Bulgaria won the race in a 6:57.12, with the U.S. coming home in a 6:59.47. The eighth-place finish gave the U.S. only its second, top 10 finish in the event since 2000.
For the first time in the history of the regatta, a U.S. women's double sculls crew recorded a top 10 finish. Hannah Solis-Cohen (New York, N.Y.) and Maria Maydan (Ridgefield, Conn.) finished third in the B final for a ninth-place finish overall. The race was tight the entire way down the course, as all six crews sat within just over three seconds of each other entering the final 500 meters. Solis-Cohen and Maydan crossed the 1,500-meter mark in sixth place but passed Romania, Brazil and Sweden to finish third. The Netherlands won the race in a 7:28.91, with Norway finishing second, 1.65 seconds behind. The U.S. finished with a time of 7:33.03.
"It's not the strongest boat out there compared to the others in the field, but they just rowed nicely and did whatever they could to stay in the game," said sculling coach Guenter Beutter. "All the moves in the middle of the race were on target. They gained every move. The result was more than I expected."
The men's quadruple sculls crew of Ben Delaney (Windermere, Fla.), Ned Benning (Weston, Mass.), Jonathan Young (St. Louis, Mo.) and Jonathon Rosow (Avon, Conn.) also earned a top 10 finish by finishing fourth in the B final. In another tight contest, the top four crews were within three seconds of each other entering the final quarter of the race. Germany won with a time of 6:09.88, with Australia and the Czech Republic finishing second and third, respectively. The U.S. took fourth in a 6:13.39.
"They moved really well the third 500, and we thought they might even be able to get to second in the B final," Beutter said. "They then got stuck a little bit, and of course, the others made a countermove, and it went all the way to the line and they got fourth. Overall, they did a really good job."
With yesterday's fourth-place finish in the women's quadruple sculls and today's results, the U.S. sculling camp had one of its best performances in history.
"The group performed at its best," Beutter said. "I think they couldn't have performed better than they did here. They were ready, and they were going for it. We just have to try to identify more and more sculling to continue the trend. I think the program itself is on the right track. The athletes were awesome. Everyone was on top of their game, and they deserved the places they came in. Even today in the strong crosswind, they performed well."