Finishing second on a big stage can be strong motivation.
It was for Chase Buchholz and Richard Wagner from Narragansett Boat Club of Providence, R.I. After missing a place on the junior national team last spring, the men’s double sculls team nailed the win Tuesday evening in the second final of the 2012 World Junior Championships Trials on Mercer Lake.
Finishing first yesterday afternoon in a time of 7:12.886, and after winning their first race in the morning, Buchholz and Wagner took the necessary two of three possible finals to earn a berth on the team that will compete August 14-19 at the World Rowing Senior and Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Pushing out to a lead in the first 500meters, the pair just kept increasing their lead, finishing well ahead of second place Montclair High School’s Christophe Delaunay and William Burstein who posted a time of 7:22.614.
The win is the latest in a sting of victories that followed last year’s junior trials, including the men’s youth double at the 2011 Head of The Charles and the men’s youth double at the 2012 USRowing Youth National Championships.
“Gosh, that second,” Wagner said. “It just made me really competitive for the year and made it really competitive this year and really hammer it. We knew we were a fast double last year. We just wanted to perfect that this year.”
His doubles partner agreed. “I think this was a culmination of a really hard year of work that started at trials last year. It kind of gave us an idea of where we were,” Buchholz said. “We knew we were competitive and we stepped it up for the Charles and for youth nationals and we’ve been training really hard for this so it feels really incredible.”
The two rowers were the first of six junior crews to win the necessary two races and earn a place on the world championship squad. Both the junior and senior world championship teams are being contested in West Mercer, N.J., this week. Finals racing in the senior events begins tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.
Following the junior men’s double, the junior women’s double crew of MacKenzi Sherman and Olivia MacLean from the USRowing Junior Women’s Sculling Selection Camp won their second race of the day and earned a spot on the junior national team finishing in a time 7:52.400 over their selection camp teammates, Jillian McGill and Caroline Heiderscheit, who finished in a time of 8:10.710.
“There was a pretty strong headwind with a lot of gusts and we really focused on staying long and walking away from the other boats,” said MacLean.
“Making the team for a second year, I knew would be a lot harder,” said Sherman, who repeats on the junior world championship team. “It feels good to do it again. It’s a different boat, but I still feel like it’s a great experience.”
In the men’s pair, the USRowing Junior Men’s Selection Camp crew of Aaron McAvey and John Chuter won and earned their national team spot with a close finish of 7:15.035 over the crew from Montclair High School of Justin Murphy and Nathaniel Goodman, who finished in a time of 7:16.305.
“It was a good race,” said Chuter. “It was what we were looking for and what we wanted.”
The men’s single sculls provided some intense racing that came down to the last strokes between Maritime Rowing Club’s Graham Mink and Nereid Boat Club’s Anthony Criscitiello.
“That was a tough race, but I really enjoyed it and I’m glad I got the opportunity to do it. It was a fun opportunity.” Mink led early then fell behind before taking the lead again in the last half, finishing in 7:40.563 over Criscitiello who rowed a 7:43.547.
In the final event of the evening, the junior women’s single, USRowing Junior Women’s Selection Camp’s Nina Vascotto completed her two race sweep in a time of 8:36.562 over her camp teammate Danielle Struck who finished in a time of 8:45.903.
“It was a tough race and Dani was definitely pushing me,” Vascotto said. “All season, through all the national team stuff, we’ve been going back and fourth and she was definitely pushing me today. The beginning was very calm but then I put it on at the thousand-meter mark and I began to push away. I’m very excited. This is only my third year rowing.”
Racing will resume at Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. with finals in the senior events.
Watch live streaming of racing at http://www.ustream.tv/usrowing.
Following the event, video clips can be purchased at http://www.usrowing.org/Multimedia/VideoDownloads.aspx.
For event information and schedule in the 2012 Non-Olympic Senior World Championship Trials, visit: http://www.usrowing.org/NationalTeams/OlympicSeniorNationalTeam/SrNTSelectionEvents/2012SenWCTrials.aspx.