PRINCETON, N.J. – The 2013 senior world championship trials for crews not yet named to the U.S. team that will compete in South Korea next month will begin Sunday on Mercer Lake, in West Windsor, N.J.
Forty-two crews from 22 clubs will compete in 12 events, including the men’s single sculls, the men and women’s lightweight single sculls, the men’s double sculls, the men’s lightweight double sculls, the men’s pair, the men’s pair with coxswain, the men’s lightweight pair, the men’s and women’s lightweight quadruple sculls, the women’s four, and the men’s lightweight eight. The event will run from Sunday, Aug. 4 through Wednesday, Aug 7.
The winners in each of the events will earn a nomination to the team that will compete at the World Rowing Championships, August 25-September 1, 2013 in Chungju, South Korea.
The regatta will feature racing among athletes who have not competed on a U.S. national team before and veterans, some which have medaled in international competition already this year.
Among those fresh off of international competition is Andrew Campbell (New Canaan, Conn.) who won a gold medal in the lightweight single sculls at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Linz, Austria, July 28th.
Campbell, who is racing as a member of the Cambridge Boat Club, was third in the event last year at the senior world championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and will race in a field of eight other lightweight single scullers, including Malta Boat Club’s Sam Cunningham (Pittsburgh, Pa).
Cunningham is a four-time national team athlete and rowed the lightweight single in the 2008 under 23 world championships, finishing 19th and has competed in the lightweight quad the past three senior world championships. Also rowing for Malta is Christopher Lambert (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), who rowed in the lightweight quad at the 2007 under 23 world championships.
In the lightweight women’s single, a field of eight will go to the line and will include USRowing Training Center – Oklahoma City’s Michelle Sechser, who rowed in the lightweight women’s quad in Plovdiv last summer finishing fourth. She will be facing competition from Vesper Boat Club’s Solveig Imsdahl (Scheelholz 15, Germany), a two-time member of the U.S. under 23 squad. She won gold in the lightweight women’s double in 2012 and finished sixth in the lightweight quad in 2011.
Also racing is Michelle Trannel (East Dubuque, Ill.), who rowed in the lightweight women’s double in the 2009 world championships, finishing 11th.
In the men’s single sculls, seven athletes will compete for a spot on the team, including Bantam Boat Club’s Thomas Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) who last rowed on the U.S. senior team in the men’s double in 2011 finishing 16th. He will face Leonard "Lenny" Futterman (New York, N.Y.) who raced the event in Linz last week, finishing 21st.
Also racing is Craftsbury Sculling Center's Stephen Whelpey (Mequon, Wis.), who won the event in the 2013 USRowing National Championships in June.
Returning to Mercer Lake where they won the second national selection regatta in the men’s double are Potomac Boat Club’s Matt Miller (West Springfield, Va.) and Willie Cowles (Farmington, Conn.). The pair earned the right to race at a world cup event and earn a spot on the team with a top four finish, but declined and raced instead in the quad at the final world cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, where they finished eighth.
The lightweight men’s pair will feature the entry from USRowing Training Center – Oklahoma City of Tyler Nase (Phoenixville, Pa.) and Michael Wales (Seattle, Wash.), who won a silver medal in Lucerne. They will face competition from the New York Athletic Club’s entry of Frank Petrucci (Warwick, N.Y.) and Greg Flood (Tulsa, Okla.). Flood finished ninth in the lightweight four at the 2011 under 23 world championships and Petrucci was a member of the Pan American Team in 2011 and finished seventh in the lightweight four.
Rowing uncontested in the women’s four is the USRowing Training Center – Princeton’s entry of Felice Mueller (Cleveland, Ohio), Tessa Gobbo (Chesterfield, N. H.), Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y.) and Emily Huelskamp (Sainte Genevieve, Mo.). The women’s four was dropped from world championship competition for a lack of entries following the 2011 world championship in which the U.S. took gold.
It was reinstated last year and is seen as a good development boat for women just breaking onto the senior level. Mueller and Coffey have both raced on the U.S. under 23 team.
For complete event information visit, http://www.usrowing.org/NationalTeams/OlympicSeniorNationalTeam/SrNTSelectionEvents/2013SeniorWorldChampionshipTrials.
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