Just a little more than a year ago, Anders Weiss was standing in front of the boat bay at the Caspersen Rowing Center rigging the pair he was going to race in trials. His partner then was Nareg Guregian and the 2016 Olympic Games were on the line. That one worked out for Weiss, who was a rookie then and coming onto the senior team at the end of the four-year Olympic cycle.
Saturday morning, Weiss was working with new partner Michael Colella, who is trying for his first senior national team. Weiss and Colella are one of six men's pairs who will be racing this week at the 2017 Senior Team Trials for a place on the U.S. squad that will compete at the World Rowing Championships next month in Sarasota, Fla.
With only the women's pair set, and selection camp naming dates still a couple of weeks away, the next four days will determine which athletes will make up the largest number of crews that will start the new Olympic quadrennial.
"It's like coming home," Weiss said. "I did this once with Nareg, and I'm looking forward to doing it now with Mike. I'm excited for it. There are some fast pairs that we have already raced in practice and I think the group, overall, has gained a lot of speed. I've gained speed.
"I think this quad has started off very well for me so far. Hopefully we can get some better results this quad and I am feeling confident that some of the guys here today can be part of that."
Racing in the 12 of the of the 19 events will start with time trials on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. Sunday evening and end with finals Wednesday morning. In all, there are 65 crews entered; 15 senior crews and four para.
In eight of those events, only a single crew is entered. The rest will be up for grabs in head-to-head racing.
The story lines in any senior team trials are often colorful, and this year will be no different. The start of a new cycle is always a blank slate. All past results are just that, past.
But in the United States, men's sculling has struggled to qualify crews for the Olympics, and in Rio there was only the men's lightweight double.
So, in addition to the men's pair, some of the more competitive events will include the men's - and women's - singles and doubles, particularly the open weight events.
Men's Double
The men's double is a Philadelphia based crew consisting of Nicholas Goode and David Judah that trained as part of the Schuylkill Navy High Performance collaborative, but is racing as a composite Vesper/ Penn A.C. composite entry. They will be challenged by Craftsbury's John Graves and Ben Davison.
Davison and Graves have been planning this trial since last spring when they were part of the quad that won trials but failed to qualify in Lucerne at the Final Olympic Qualification. Davison spent the spring rowing in the Washington men's 1V and then in the U23 coxed four at the U23 world championships in Bulgaria.
Graves has been the fastest men's single this spring. He won the spring speed order and finished second in the Diamond Sculls at Henley.
Men's Single
If John Graves had remained in the single, he would probably have been favored to win. It's more up for grabs now with a mix of experienced and not so experienced - but fast - athletes. Greg Ansolabehere, Justin Keen and Chris Lambert fit the experienced bill.
Michael Clougher headlines the new.
Clougher won the Club Nationals elite race, catching and passing John Graves, who was struggling with new rigging in his boat at the event, in the last 500 meters.
Women's Single
This is the first quad that single sculler Gevvie Stone will not be in the mix. Stone was a fixture on the women's single for most of the 2012 and 2016 quadrennials and finished her career up with a silver medal in Rio.
Unless Stone - a doctor just getting her medical career going full time - pulls a surprise return next year, this is a door wide open for the 2020 Tokyo Games. Nine women are entered in these trials, including two experienced Olympians, Felice Mueller (2016 pair) and Kara Kohler, who won a bronze medal in the quad in London.
For both women, the single is mostly a new adventure. Kohler was in the sweep camp mix for the 2016 Games, but has been training at the California Rowing Club and will row under that banner for this event.
Mueller has been in the single throughout the spring and raced in the Lucerne World Cup and finished fourth. "With all the races this summer, the single is all so new and I am figuring out a lot of things," Mueller said. "Every piece, every race, I'm just trying to take away something learn."
Mueller said she is enjoying the new boat class, but is in 'we'll see' mode about a full run in the single to another Olympics. "I've performed better than I thought I would at this point. It's still to be determined. At the beginning of this year, I thought it was just to train and learn some stuff.
"But it's been fun, and racing in Lucerne was fun," she said. "I liked that it was just me. I didn't feel like I was going to let anyone down. It was just go out and have a good piece."
Mueller's recent experiences in the boat have been solid and she won at Club Nationals where there were several experienced former national team and elite level scullers, including Kohler who finished second and led early in that final.
Joining them is Emily Kallfelz, who fits the newcomer bill for the senior team, but also headlines the up-and-coming crowd; Kallfelz just won a bronze medal in this event at the U23 world championships.
Women's Double
Ellen Tomek and Meghan O'Leary have rowed the double together since the start of the Rio quad. They finished sixth in the Olympic final and are back again. They are the naturally favored crew, but they will certainly face a challenge from the six other crews, including a Princeton women's training center entry, an unaffiliated/CRC composite crew, and the young but fast composite crew of Cicely Madden and Elizabeth Sharis, who are coming off a fourth-place finish at U23 worlds last month.
Para Events
Of note in the para events is the distance. This is the first year the para events will be rowed as a full 2k. The events are minimally subscribed, just one in the men's arms and shoulders single, but this change will alter some of the dynamics of the racing.
"It's kind of like a whole new beginning for me with the new distance," said Blake Haxton, 2016 Paralympian in the arms and shoulders single (now called PR1). "This quad is going to be really different. It doesn’t feel like a repeat of the last three years.
"I don't think the placement order is going to change much from what it was in the past. A five-minute 1k is already an endurance race," he said.
"But I do think the gaps are going to get bigger. For me, this comes at a good time. I'm not just starting out. Over the last three years, I learned what kind of equipment works for me and what the best way to move the boat for me is. So, I'm looking forward to the new distance."
Stayed tuned. Row2k is on site and will be posting race reports and photos all week!
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