Molly Bruggeman and Regina Salmons won the women's pair at the Fall Speed Order, and we caught up with them after the racing.
Bruggeman, a world champion in 2016 and two time worlds medalist, both in the four, raced the women's four in Belgrade this past summer, while Salmons won a silver medal there, rowing six seat in the women's eight, and raced the eight at the Tokyo Olympics.
You can watch row2k video here of them rowing in the time trial.
row2k: Tell us about the race and how what made your combination successful this weekend?
Regina Salmons
It was a really exciting race--our coach Jesse Foglia has been absolutely amazing this fall and it's been a great group of women to train with in Princeton - such depth and positive and aggressive racing spirits throughout.
I absolutely love rowing with Molly, she's incredibly strong both mentally and physically and it's a dream to be able to row with her and come off the water laughing and smiling and having fun going fast.
Molly Bruggeman
The field in the A final was incredible. Regina and I have been together a couple of weeks and have been doing fairly well regularly, but we had Maddie (Wanamaker) and Claire (Collins) just shoot out off the start and be up with open water at the 500. I honestly didn't even know - it wasn't until about the 1k, when we had a bit of a 1k move, that I looked over my shoulder and thought, where did they go?
I think it's fun, both for Regina and I to have that practice of 'How do we remain calm and try to reel someone back in like that?' And then for Maddie and Claire to have such a ballsy first 1500 of 'Alright, we're gonna get the hell out of here and just see what happens.'
The race around us was just unfolding very tightly, too. To have a race like that early in the season is always good, to learn something and push yourself in different ways. We really accomplished that as a group, which is what I'm really proud of. We all went into it with very much a team mindset, and I'm glad that we stuck with that throughout the racing and had a lot of fun with it.
That's a good sign for things to come heading into next year. Basically we go to Colorado Springs, and then we go to Florida, and things start happening. It's not a lot of time and so it was good that we got some racing underway and it feels all that much closer to having the Olympic Selection camp happen. It's never too early to start thinking about that and gearing up.
row2k: Can you talk about how the Speed Order fits into the training towards Paris?
Molly Bruggeman
It was a nice way to cap off a solid training block for our group. I thought that some of the new girls did an amazing job, like Kate (Knifton) and Emily Kallfelz, just switching over to sweep, and some girls from the eight who just got thrown together recently to row pairs. Not everybody has the same pair racing experience, so to see some of the younger girls really step up and have a great race was really exciting for me, too.
Especially when you're new, the more you can get yourself into those uncomfortable racing situations, the better the team is going to be on the whole when it comes time to name the team.
Regina Salmons
The Speed Order is the first data point to start off the Olympic year, and it's going to be a great string of pieces to come off of this. I love to see super tight racing in both the A and B finals and it's a testament to the depth and strength of the US women.
row2k: Molly, you talked about the team mindset at the Princeton Training Center; how has that dynamic helped push you along towards your goals?
Molly Bruggeman
I'm just thankful for all of the awesome teammates that we have here, and the men who have been training with us in Princeton, too, have been so great. Chris Carlson was here this whole fall, and Michael Knippen and Andrew Gaard, so having those guys duking it out on the water with everybody on a regular basis has been really helpful to raise everybody's level.
Josy (Verdonkschot) does a really nice job of bringing everyone together and creating that one team dynamic, so when we do have races like this, I see people that I trained with for months in the summer. I've lined up against Sam Melvin and I've lined up against Michelle (Sechser) and Molly (Reckford), people that I wouldn't necessarily race in a normal situation, but they are hard racers. It's good because that what you need is people who are going to push you. It's those people that I would credit for us having the result that we had today. It was because of the people that I am surrounded by.
Like Michelle (Sechser), who is, in my mind, the epitome of the success of women's rowing. She is an incredible athlete and a lightweight rower and she's winning the open woman's single event as a lightweight. That is just unbelievable, and having her as a training partner every day, she is the standard.
We think, okay, Michelle did 96% on this workout, and we have to try and beat that. That's such a hard ask most days and it's cool because she's not in a pair but she is the standard. It's a really cool thing to constantly have the bar being raised around you because people are fast.
There's a lot of naysayers out there right now - and I read their articles from places that we won't talk about now - but people have a lot of opinions and they're not factually based. If you talk to the athletes, you are going to find that 99% of people are improving and happy under the system that's currently taking place.
As someone who has a career that has spanned now almost 10 years training in Princeton under different coaches, I think the way the group is now is very healthy. It's very happy and people are seeing those results on the water.
I'm just really proud of the group that we have. For all the years I've trained, I am very thankful that I came back for this cycle, to be able to be a part of what's happening right now. This is how it should be and it's really good. I'm excited for the next couple months and for the group as a whole.
row2k: One last question: the Fall Speed Order has changed format a few times over the years--it even involved a stake race in 2021--so what did you think of the format used this year, the 1900m time trial to straight 2k finals?
Molly Bruggeman
It's so fun to race 2k's in the fall. In years past, that's been pretty rare, but it was a very fun experience.
My first year of training center I rowed in the Carnegie Lake version, which was in a single and with a 6k erg test the day before, so this was a lot more fun. It is tough to go and switch gears in the fall, where it is more conducive to be doing a longer piece, but it was really fun and challenging and different for us.
As a Princeton Training Center group, a lot of us were in combinations that were new or hadn't really been rowed that much, so it was a good challenge. It was a nice way to cap off our fall schedule and really to stretch the racing muscle early in the season. The big thing that Jesse (Foglia) said was that we he wanted us all to learn something from the racing and I think that a lot of us did.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|