Let's see, where to begin? Sunday in Lucerne for the finals of World Cup III was a fairly monumental day for United States rowing. Let's break out some of the accomplishments:
- Medals in seven Olympic class events and one non-Olympic class event for eight medals total.
- Gold in M8+, W8+, and M4-. Silver in W1x and LW2x. Bronze in W2-, W2x, and LM2.
- The gold medal in the M4- was the United States first win in the event since 2004 when the boat's coach, Bryan Volpenhein, was the stroke seat of the crew.
- The two gold medals for the men are just the fourth and fifth World Cup gold medals for the men ever, the last of which came in the M4x in 2008 here in Lucerne.
- The W8+ set a world's best time by 0.01s with a crew that had exactly one returning athlete from the 2012 Olympic games.
- The USA won the overall team points trophy for the regatta, which is almost certainly a first.
- Lots of new American faces winning medals in their first senior level regatta ever, by my count nine – 10 if you count Kate Bertko rowing in a new weight class.
- Three crews, LW2x, W2-, and W2x, finished high enough to satisfy the selection procedures for the World Championship team.
Now, while these results are fantastic relative to recent history, they should be tempered a bit as this is still just the first Lucerne World Cup of a new cycle. So, while a lot can and will change over then next three years, and even the next couple months, it's a great starting point any way you approach it, especially for the men's side.
The Volpenhein/McGee era for USA men's rowing couldn't have asked for a better start for the heavyweight men. Both coaches are quite young and have brought a lot of energy and new ideas into the mix.
"We have young coaches and young athletes, but we also have a lot of experience so we have this very unique blend of energy," added Seth Weil of the four. "It's great momentum. I can't see us doing anything but getting faster between now and Rio. Everyone is really driven."
M4- The make-up of the four is a mix of experienced guys and new people, with Henrik Rummel and Grant James coming out of the Olympic four and eight respectively, and relative newcomers Mike Gennaro and Seth Weil. Gennaro is not a total newcomer, having been an Olympic spare in 2012, as well as in a couple U23 eights, the 2011 Pan-Am games, and this year's Sydney World Cup. Weil, however, has come out of nowhere this year, a UC Davis rower who spent part of last year training with Carlos Dinares.
"We were leading from the start," said bowman Grant James. "The Aussies made a big push at the 500 and again at the 1000 so we were trading the lead with them, but every time we made our move it was effective and kept us pulling away. We had around a 2-seat lead coming into the last 500 and the Aussies really pushed again, but our lift kept us up through the line."
James, one of the mainstays of the last quadrennial, was very happy to get the monkey of the back and get the win. "It feels great to get finally get a gold," he said. "I've been waiting a long time to feel this way again, so we're very happy, and we are just going to keep grinding back home to try and keep getting faster so we can get this feeling again."
On the crew's progression through the regatta, Weil added: "It's a new lineup and this is our first chance at racing it internationally and the first time I'm racing internationally. So, the goal was just to uncork it and see where the speed fell. The heat went well, so we tried it again in the semis and then we knew we had good base speed in the final, so we just wanted to clean it up and execute. It was a learning process."
"We have young coaches and young athletes, but we also have a lot of experience so we have this very unique blend of energy," he added. "It's great momentum. I can't see us doing anything but getting faster between now and Rio. Everyone is really driven."
Rummel, who's getting married in six days (perhaps as good a reason as any to
cut a modest pose on the medal stand this year), added perspective to the performance, "I don't think we're quite as fast as we were last year, because it's a post-Olympic year, but the US team as a whole is in much better spot right now than we were four years ago. We have a full group training and fast people back in Princeton ready to take our seats. We are excited for the road ahead, but I also don't want to blow it up to more than it is - World Cup gold in a post-Olympic year."
M8+ The men's eight came off the water happy to get the win. It was the first time the German men's eight has lost since 2009, and it didn't come without a fight. Germany grabbed a half length lead in the first 500 and the USA spent the middle thousand clawing back on to level terms, then won it by about a seat in the last 500.
"We knew that Germany was really fast off the start," said coxswain Zach Vlahos following the race. "We talked about it, and we knew we had to be prepared to be down going into the middle part of the race. We were confident in our base speed and we wanted to grind them down in the middle. Then who wants it more in the last 500 meters."
On the sprint, Vlahos added: "I just want to make sure we go together. I let them know where we are on the race course, and just make sure that we're going to shift power and drive to the line in the last 10 strokes, that we do it on the same stroke together. I just let them know, and they're the guys that do the work. I'm just guiding it. Credit to the guys in the boat today, it was a gutsy performance."
With this performance behind the squad, it's back into selection before the July 28 squad naming date. Gennaro from the four was eager to get back to work in Princeton, "Selection is still open for the whole team, so we want to hold on to our spots. The eight wants to hold on to their spots, and there are guys back home training that want spots. I'm just trying to make the team for South Korea and keep it going."
W8+ The women's eight was a bit of a mystery coming in to the regatta, as the lineup was a nearly complete overhaul from London. That doesn't mean it's lacking in horsepower though, and the crew backed up its race for lanes win with a dominating wire to wire performance in the final, besting the world's best time by 0.01 seconds.
The crew was ecstatic to learn about the record time on shore, and coxswain Katelin Snyder was able to keep the crew focused in the second thousand in spite of it's open water lead. "I knew that we were 2:55 or so at the thousand, and that was on pace, so we just tried to shift the focus internally and I'm really excited that it worked."
As usual, the crew also heads back into selection for the next two weeks prior to the naming date.
W1x Elle Logan is in her first season racing the single and had a terrific race in the final to win the silver medal, defeating Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova in the process. Logan used a controlled first half of the race and strong second half to edge the Czech sculler at the line. Australian Kim Crow won the race about a length ahead of Logan.
"Instead of going crazy at the start, I've been just trying to move the boat. In the final, everyone steps it up a notch, that's what I'm learning," said Logan. "It's really awesome to line up with the majority of the people that were in the final. I felt really lucky, and I'm having a lot of fun."
Logan now shifts focus to the World Championships, as she has already won and accepted the seat for the USA.
LW2x Lucerne was the first international regatta for the new combo of Kate Bertko and Kristin Hedstrom to test out their speed again the world. The crew dominated the NSR in May and needed a top four finish here to lockup selection for South Korea, and certainly hit the mark, winning the silver medal behind Italy. Bertko and Hedstrom raced from the lead in the first half of the race but were unable to hold off the Italians in the second half.
"We had our race plan that we wanted to execute and I think this regatta has been an experience in learning to work with each other," said Bertko after the race. "We were going for the win, of course, but I think we got a lot of good stuff out of it and we're certainly hungry."
Hedstrom added, "I would say this was the best of the races we had here this weekend. We haven't had too many races together. This is our first international regatta, so we're just building every piece and it felt like today was pretty solid."
W2- The women's pair is another new combo for the USA, featuring Olympic champion Meghan Musnicki and first time senior team member Taylor Goetzinger. The crew won the bronze medal Sunday behind GBR and NZL after battling with the Kiwis for the first 1250 meters of the race.
"It feels great to be in the medals," said Goetzinger. "We were hoping to be a little bit closer to the top in this race, but we have definitely been gaining speed all weekend and it's really exciting got be training in the pair with Meghan. We are hoping to find more speed as we go on. Things really just started to click this week during practice, and we put in a lot of work and the boat was running great."
The pair now has the option of accepting the seats for the world championship team, but will likely go back in to selection. Musnicki added, "We have to see what's best for the training group, but we'll continue to gain speed, no matter what that means."
W2x The closest finish of the day came in the final of the women's double, with Lithuania holding off New Zealand by 0.02 seconds for the win. The American double of Meghan O'Leary and Ellen Tomek raced hard with the leaders for 1500 meters, but were unable to hold the pace in the last 500 and won the bronze medal over Belarus. The USA2 entry of Megan Kalmoe and Adrienne Martelli also qualified for the final, finishing sixth.
"It was a good race," said Tomek. "We were aggressive and we followed our race plan. It was a little bit higher and harder than our heat on Friday, but obviously not quite fast enough for the win."
The regatta was the first international event for O'Leary, who picked up the sport after college. "This is exciting, it's still a little unreal," she said. "It's been an awesome experience so far, and I'm lucky to have a great doubles partner to keep me level and not get me too nervous. I'm excited to see what's next!"
The third place finish also qualified the crew for the World Championships team, which they now have the option of accepting or going back in to selection.
W4x Tough one for the USA in this final as the crew was running in fourth place, roughly half a length out of third at the 1500 when it was hit with an oar-shattering crab which ended the race for the quad. Germany had grabbed the lead from the first few strokes and won gold over Poland with the Australians winning the bronze. This crew now goes back into selection with the larger US sculling group for South Korea.
LM2- Racing on Saturday evening, the Light Men's Pair of Michael Wales and Tyler Nase had a fantastic race to win the silver medal. The pair are technically the spares for the light men's four, and came to Lucerne hoping to make the final, but used a great sprint to move from fourth to second behind the winners from GBR.
This pair is a very young crew, with Nase just graduated from Princeton while Wales still has another year left at Harvard. "This is our first international event, ever, and my first international event in a sweep boat," said Wales. "Our plan was to just to keep it under control and realize that you can't go out too hard in the beginning, especially in international racing. You have to be smart.
"We knew we were going to have a really big move at the end and so we were trying to stay in contention," he continued. "When we came into the 350 (meters to go), we really started moving. I think that's when we knew we were going to do something special. That's when we just kept going, and kept feeding off of each other and just kept building off of each other's pushes all the way through the line."
B FINALS Three other American crews raced in Sunday's B finals. The M4x entry from Potomac Boat Club had a good race with a nice sprint to finish second in the final for eighth place overall. This crew will now split into doubles to race at trials in August.
The LM4- won their B Final race after just missing out on qualifying for the A Final. As had been the theme for their regatta, the crew overcame a slow start to move through the entire field to get the win.
Men's single sculler John Graves finished third in his B Final to finish ninth overall, which is a solid result in the deep and uber-competitive men's single. Graves won the first NSR and raced at both the second and third World Cups, so this summer has gotten him a great amount of experience. The men's single will now go to open trial in August.
07/18/2013 6:11:39 PM