As the Qualified Boats Olympics Trials got underway this morning on Mercer Lake, "heats" was the right word for the racing conditions in more ways than one; by the 7:30 racetime for the first heat, temperatures were already well into the 80s. A puff of a tailwind gave some relief if you were on the shore, but as everyone who has raced in these conditions understands, a hot tailwind makes it feel like you are racing in sweltering, still air; whew.
In the men's double, it was the putative second heat of the event that provided both the most intrigue and the most hard-fought racing. The 7:40 race was underway for less than 100 meters when the Penn AC double of Joe Spencer and Patrick Rufo broke an oar clear in two well inside of the "breakage zone" that allows the race to be called back and started over. While Penn AC limped back to the boathouse to replace their oar, one of the other three crews rowed back as well (Perry and DuRoss), while the other two simply waited it out in their shells near the start.
When the race was finally rowed at 8:30, the USRowing double of Mark Flickinger and Gabe Winkler led most of the way by a very modest margin of up to about 2/3 of a length, but in the final strokes were overtaken by the Durham BC crew of Deaglan Mceachern and Francis Cuddy. With two to advance, there was nothing really in placing either first or second save for a better semi tomorrow morning, so it's not clear if both crews took it all the way in, particularly given the conditions.
The other two heats were arguably not as closely contest as the final times might suggest; crossing 500 to go, both of the eventual winners (Elliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini in the first heat, and Thomas and Peter Graves in the third heat) had an open water cushion, and cruised it in to the finish line to some extent without too much strain.
In the men's pairs, only one of the advancing crews was really pushed; the USRowing Training Center crew of Kyle Larson and Dave Worley nipped the Penn AC pair of Stephen Kasprzyk and Austin Nichols by under four-tenths of a second at the line to take the second advancing spot in the heat. Josh Inman and Matthew Schnobrich posted the fastest qualifying time of the three heats, and did it rowing pretty much alone way out front, but the tailwind was increasing with each race throughout the morning, so it would be premature to pick a favorite just yet. The other heat winners were Brodie Buckland and 2000 Olympic silver medalist in the pair Sebastian Bea, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who have reportedly been doing very well in training pieces leading up to the trials.
The women's single and women's pair will also be contested at this trials, but with four entries in each event, no qualifying heats were required, and racing in those events will begin on Wednesday morning with Final One of the best-of-three format.
Due to the heat, this evening's reps will be pushed back two hours from the original 5:30pm scheduled start, the three reps run on 10 minute centers beginning at 7:30.
Complete results:
1 Mens 2x Heat 1 (07:30:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 California Rowing CLub (Elliot Hovey, Wes Piermarini) 3 06:32.957
2 California Rowing Club/Penn A.C. Rowing Association (Michael Holbrook, Andrew Liverman) 4 06:36.163
3 Vesper Boat Club (Andrew Grzybowski, Dan Scholz) 5 06:47.819
4 Lake Union Crew (Jonathan Burns, John Lorton) 2 07:01.481
#2 Mens 2x Heat 2 (07:40:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 Durham Boat Club (Deaglan Mceachern, Francis Cuddy) 3 06:26.000
2 USRowing Training Center (Mark Flickinger, Gabe Winkler) 4 06:28.327
3 USRowing Training Center (Mike Perry, Sloan Duross) 2 06:40.225
4 Penn A.C. Rowing Association (Joe Spencer, Patrick Rufo) 5 06:41.156
#3 Mens 2x Heat 3 (07:50:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 Bantam Boat Club (Thomas Graves, Peter Graves) 2 06:32.172
2 CTC/ CRC (Warren Anderson, Jon Greer) 5 06:35.862
3 Penn A.C. Rowing Association (David Coughlin, Christopher Defelice) 3 06:48.017
4 Vesper Boat Club (Joshua Brown, Ben Churchill) 4 06:52.470
#4 Mens 2- Heat 1 (08:00:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 USRowing Training Center (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss) 3 06:50.307
2 USRowing Training Center (Ben Harrison, Alex Hearne) 2 06:51.314
3 USRowing Training Center (Jake Cornelius, Chris Callaghan) 4 07:00.345
4 Vesper Boat Club (Mark Voorhees, Paul Falcigno) 5 07:01.616
#5 Mens 2- Heat 2 (08:10:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 USRowing Training Center (Brodie Buckland, Sebastian Bea) 3 06:43.046
2 USRowing Training Center (Kyle Larson, Dave Worley) 4 06:47.271
3 Penn A.C. Rowing Association (Stephen Kasprzyk, Austin Nichols) 2 06:47.661
#6 Mens 2- Heat 3 (08:20:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 USRowing Training Center (Josh Inman, Matthew Schnobrich) 2 06:41.568
2 USRowing Training Center (Samuel Burns, Ted Farwell) 4 07:01.858
3 Vesper Boat Club (Patrick Godfrey, Jaime Velez) 3 07:19.533
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