WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - Time trials wrapped up Sunday evening as the Senior World Championship Trials II got underway on Lake Mercer as crews battled it out for one of the four remaining spots to the 2015 World Rowing Championships.
Four men's events are featured at the 2015 Senior World Championships Trials II including the single sculls, double sculls, pair and quadruple sculls. They are the last crews to be selected before the full team is named from the USRowing Training Center camps.
Ten crews have already been named to the team that will compete August 29-Sept. 6, 2015, in Aiguebelette, France from either world rowing cup performances or the Senior I World Championships Trials.
Seven crews were selected in the first trials including the lightweight men's and women's single sculls, men's pair with coxswain, lightweight men's pair, lightweight men and women's quadruple sculls and the lightweight men's eight.
In addition, five crews that won national selection events and have earned and accepted nominations from world cup performances were named to the team including the women's single sculls, women's pair, women's double sculls and the lightweight men's and women's double sculls.
In the most subscribed to event of the trials, the men's single sculls category saw eleven contestants at Sunday evening's racing.
After finishing 16th overall at the 2015 World Rowing Cup 3 in Lucernce, Switzerland in July, the two-time Olympian Ken Jurkowski(New Fairfield, Conn.) posted the fastest pace of the single sculls time trial with a time of 6:49.57.
In the double sculls, California Rowing Club's lineup of Paul Marcy (Brattleboro, Vt.) and Ryan Shelton (Whittier, Calif.) finished just four seconds ahead of Craftsbury Sculling Center's Benjamin Dann (Pound Ridge, N.Y.) and John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) after posting a time of 6:14.47.
In the pair, Michael Disanto (Boston, Mass.) and Tim Aghai (Skokie, Ill.) were able to keep the Vesper Boat Club crew of Yohann Rigogne (Besançon, France) and Steve Kasprzyk(Cinnaminson, N.J.) at bay finishing in a time of 6:21.99, just 0.78 seconds ahead of the second crew.
CRC posted another top time of the evening in the quadruple sculls as the crew of Derek Johnson (Hillsborough, Calif.), John Madura (West Milford, N.J), Hans Struzyna (Kirkland, Wash.) and Ian Silviera (West Bloomfield, Mich.) finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of the Craftsbury crew in a time of 5:31.12.
Racing will continue tomorrow morning with three heats in the single sculls and two heats in the pair starting at 7:30 a.m. Two repechage events will be held for the single sculls on Monday evening starting at 6:00 p.m.