Felice Mueller likes the start of the race. And Grace Luczak likes the finish.
It's a pretty good combination for a crew racing the women's pair at the 2016 Olympic Games, because between the two of them, they put together one of the most impressive races for the United States' rowing team competing on Monday at the Olympic Rowing Course on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Mueller (Cleveland, Ohio) led from the start and established a commanding lead in their event before the race was half over. It was the kind of the race the U.S. was looking for from the nine crews that went to the line on Monday.
"We were supposed to race yesterday, and both Felice and I were itching to go," said Luczak. "Today was an amazing day for Team USA, with nine boats out on the water. So we were inspired by everyone else's performances. We were ready to handle whatever came, and we were relaxed and ready to go."
Luczak and Mueller won their heat in 7:05.14. Spain finished second in 7:12.00, and Poland was last to advance in 7:12.82. "We were really just trying to have a good race," Mueller said. "We're excited with how it unfolded."
They will have a day off from racing and wait for the results from the Tuesday repechage to see who they will face in the Wednesday semifinal.
Of the nine U.S. crews that raced Monday, seven advanced to the next level of racing and two - the women's eight and women's quadruple sculls - reached the finals.
In addition to the women's eight, quad and pair, crews advancing Monday included the men's pair, women's double sculls, lightweight men's double sculls and men's four.
Racing, but not advancing, were the men's eight and lightweight women's double sculls. They will have to race in the repechage to advance.
"All of our crews now have a race under their belts," said Curtis Jordan, USRowing Director of High Performance. "Some performed well and have some adjustments to make. None have been eliminated and there is time to adjust.
"All have to keep improving over the next several days. How the coaches and athletes respond to these early races will make a difference in their final results."
Of all the crews racing at this regatta, the one probably being watched most closely is the women's eight. The U.S. eight is the two-time defending Olympic champion and comes into competition with 10 consecutive Olympic and world titles, a streak that started in 2006.
The U.S. crew of coxswain Katelin Snyder (Detroit, Mich.), Amanda Elmore (West Lafayette, Ind.), Eleanor Logan (Boothbay Harbor, Maine), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y.), Tessa Gobbo (Chesterfield, N.H.), Lauren Schmetterling (Moorestown, N.J.), Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Kerry Simmonds (San Diego, Calif.) and Emily Regan (Buffalo, N.Y.) pushed its bow out in front of the pack from the start and led the entire way, finishing first and advancing directly to the final in a 6:06.34.
The Netherlands crossed second in 6:14.36, with Romania third in 6:16.24. Great Britain advanced from the second heat in a 6:09.52.
As they have in every regatta they compete in, the nine women in the crew won together and came to the interview area to meet the press as one boat, answering questions standing shoulder to shoulder.
"It was great," said Polk. "It was our first full (race) together, and we definitely were right in rhythm with each other. We just had a lot of fun. It was a good first step to set us up for the final."
"Bow seat is never somewhere I expected to race," said Regan. "So it's fun being back there and racing with the girls in the boat. I kind of feel like now, it's official, that I am part of the Olympic team because we got to race. I couldn't ask for a better group of nine girls to race with, so I am so excited that we get one more race together, and we're hopefully going to make it the best race we've ever done."
After finishing third in its heat, the women's quadruple sculls crew of Adrienne Martelli (University Place, Wash.), Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.), Tracy Eisser (Fair Lawn, N.J.) and Grace Latz (Jackson, Mich.) used the repechage to advance to the final.
The U.S. needed to finish in the top four to reach the final and finished fourth in 6:28.54. The Netherlands won in 6:24.61. Poland was second in 6:25.49, and China was third in 6:28.49.
"We're really happy to have made the final," said Kalmoe. "The field that we are up against in the women's quad is really, really tight and every boat is definitely in the hunt for the medals in this regatta, and we're just happy to be in it."
Latz, who is racing in her first Olympics, said they were not fazed by the changes in the schedule, which moved their race up into the morning program.
"It's just like practice," she said. "We prepared for this. I've been in the quad before; we've been to many start lines before, and we've seen a lot of the same athletes. So, yes, it's an Olympics, but we're competing against a lot of the same women."
After a disappointing heat on Saturday during difficult wind conditions, the men's pair of Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.) and Anders Weiss (Barrington, R.I.) advanced by finishing third in the repechage with a time of 6:36.06.
The Netherlands won in 6:34.16, and Serbia was second in 6:34.52. The U.S. now races in the Tuesday semifinal against The Netherlands, Italy, Australia, France and Romania.
"I personally thought that in Saturday's race, we didn't pursue the race as aggressively as we should have or as we're used to," said Guregian. "I thought maybe the conditions frazzled us, subconsciously. We didn't think about it externally, but maybe it was in the back of my mind. I thought it was a little cautious, and I think that set us up for a pretty poor race and that was my fault. I didn't want to do that again today. We discussed it, and we wanted to go for it from the start and let the chips fall where they may. I thought we did a pretty decent job."
"In trials leading up to the Olympics, our goal in every single thing was to win it, and I think in the heats we went out to qualify, and that was probably our biggest mistake there," added Weiss. "Today, we just went out there to win it. We didn't win it, but we put down a very solid race, because we were going for it."
The women's double of Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich.) and Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La.) also had difficulty in the Saturday conditions and did not advance from its heat. The crew made up for that Monday, finishing second in 7:00.60 behind Germany, which crossed in 7:00.54. The Czech Republic was third in 7:03.68.
Tomek and O'Leary now race in the semifinal Tuesday against Germany, China, Lithuania, New Zealand and Greece.
"Any crew is going to come into the Olympic Games and feel like they want to be able to perform at the best of their ability, the top level," said O'Leary. "And we just feel like that wasn't our day in the heats. We weren't able to put together the race that we know we are capable of.
"We let the conditions be too much of a factor for us. We had some bad luck, but we let it play into how we were handling the race. Today was different. We saw what we did wrong, and we made some adjustments and just went out there and knew what we had to do and we did it. We put together a much better race that we're proud of, and we know that we need to step it up even more tomorrow."
"Like Meghan said, we had to make some improvements from the heat, handle the conditions a little better, focus on a few more technical aspects of the race. Once we launched, it was heads down, get to work," Tomek said. "We have a pretty good relationship in the boat, where a lot of it, we don't need to talk. We know what we need to do and we do it. A lot of our moves are that way, too. She just knows when I'm going to go. I know when it is time to go just by how she's driving the boat. That's our relationship in the boat."
In the lightweight men's double, Andrew Campbell, Jr. (New Canaan, Conn.) and Joshua Konieczy (Millbury, Ohio) advanced to their semifinal, finishing second in 6:26.56. Norway won the heat in 6:24.81, and Chile finished third in 6:38.95.
They will wait for the results of the Tuesday repechages to see who they will face in the semifinal.
"It was nice to finally get started today," said Campbell. "Yesterday was a bit odd, weighing in and knowing that it was unlikely that we were going to race. But, we kept our cool and had a good piece out there. It was probably a little conservative because the cross-chop throws in an element of not wanting to catch a crab. I'm pleased with how it went. It's a good start.
"We're always trying to take it one race at a time," he said. "And so the goal for today was to just advance. It was also to kind of test ourselves in a racing environment. The last time we raced was about a month and a half ago, so this is a good chance to ramp up without the pressure of needing to capture a spot from a close situation. All-in-all, just a good chance to get warmed up for the semis."
The last crew to race and advance Monday was the men's four. Seth Weil (Menlo Park, Calif.), Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.), Matt Miller (Springfield, Va.) and Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.) finished third in 5:58.31. Italy won in 5:56.01, and Canada was second in 5:58.26.
They also will await the results of the repechage to see who they will face in the semifinal. While advancing, the crew was disappointed in its performance and said it would find a way to be faster in the next race.
Italy led the length of the course. The U.S. was in second through the middle 1,000, until Canada came through in the third 500.
"It wasn't our best," said Rummel. "But we're in the hunt with a lot of other crews, and we need a good race to make the finals. We feel like we need to just bring a little more passion. We've got to really race it, get out there and really race the crews around us.
"We saw something similar in 2014. We had a mediocre heat, barely advanced just out of the rep, and then really turned it on for the semis. We've been there before. We know we can do it, and we know that these crews demand that we row our best to advance and to medal."
"If you want to win a medal, you've got to be able to win a semi, so that's what we are looking forward to doing on Wednesday," said Weil. "It's time to step up and really throw down. It's good to advance. It certainly wasn't our best piece, but we just have to step it up on Wednesday and see what we are made of. "
Not advancing from the Monday heats were the lightweight women's double sculls and the men's eight. Both will have a second chance later this week.
Kate Bertko (Oakland, Calif.) and Devery Karz (Park City, Utah) raced in third place the length of the course, one spot out of advancing to the semifinals. They finished in 7:07.37. China won in 7:00.13, and Denmark was second in 7:01.84.
They will race in the Tuesday repechage against Hong Kong, Chile, Brazil, Japan and Great Britain.
"It was what we are expecting from this regatta," said Bertko. "Everybody is fast, and we have some work to do. I think we are excited to go work hard and race some more. Just rest, recover - same stuff."
"It's always hard to go through another weigh-in that you didn't plan on," Karz said. "But I think like with all the other crews, you deal with the adversity you've been given and you move on. I think Kate and I did a good job with that, and we're going to take what we learned today and move forward to tomorrow. It's always been tight in the lightweight women's double. It's only one event, 20 boats and everybody wants to make it.
"We've been preparing for four years, so we just have to go out and execute."
In the men's eight, the crew of coxswain Sam Ojserkis (Linwood, N.J.), Austin Hack (Old Lyme, Conn.), Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.), Mike DiSanto (Boston, Mass.), Steve Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.), Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.), Alex Karwoski (Hollis, N.H.), Hans Struzyna (Kirkland, Wash.) and Sam Dommer (Folsom, Calif.) finished second in 5:40.16. Germany won in 5:38.22 to advance to the final, and Poland was third in 5:42.32.
They race Wednesday against New Zealand, Poland, The Netherlands and Italy in the repechage. One of those crews will be eliminated from competition.
"It was good to race, good to get out there for the first time in a long time," said Ochal. "It was a solid row, but obviously not quick enough. We have a couple of days here to get ready for the rep, do our job in the rep, so we're excited to race again."
"I think it is all very simple," Kasprzyk said. "No matter the race, you're going there and you're racing the boat next to you, and that never really changes. That's the way we went out there today, and that's the way we're going to row in the rep.
"We are just going to go race the boat next to us and go as fast as we can from the start all the way to the finish, just keep it simple. The Olympics are spread out, so going to the rep is not necessarily a disadvantage. Either way, we'd be doing work on Wednesday, and now we are lining up against boats we'll be racing later on, hopefully. It's just more practice, and there's nothing wrong with that."