The race is on. With three of four finals decided by less than a second and a quarter, one of them by about a foot, it became clear what is on the line on Mercer Lake this week.
The men's and women's pairs each featured blistering come-from-behind sprints, one (in the men's pair) just barely unsuccessful, and the other (in the women's pair) just barely, but wildly, successful.
In the men's pair, Dan Walsh and Jamie Schroeder came back from just under a length deficit at the 500m mark, waiting until about 300 to go to start winding up. With ten strokes to go, they came nearly even with Arturo Samsonov and Luke Walton when a bad stroke - not a crab at all, just a less-than-perfect stroke, drained off some of their momentum, and they had to settle for second by a few feet. Both advance to tomorrow's second final, along with third-place finishers Bob Kaehler and Ryan Torgerson. Jason Flickinger and revered vet Jeff Klepacki do not advance to the second final.
In the women's pair, it came down to the final stroke of the race, as Kate MacKenzie and Sarah Jones, who had been just barely shadowing Liane Malcos and Portia Johnson for most of the race, and especially the final 400 meters, sniffed out the finish line with four final grinding strokes, and surged ahead just before the line. Both advance, along with third-place Katie Hammes and Maite Urtasun; Kate Ronkainen and Dana Peirce did not advance.
And even in the men's double, Adam Holland and Ken Jurkowski threatened to uncork another sprint today, but it wasn't quite as ballistic as their heats push, and they finished about a half-length down on Henry Nuzum and Aquil Abdullah. Both advance, along with Mike Callahan and Dave Friedericks; Burns and Beyreuther do not advance to the second final.
In the women's lightweight double, Stacy Borgman and Lisa Schlenker will be hard to beat this week on the evidence of this morning's first final; they cruised to the line a good couple lengths ahead of the field almost without raising their rating.
Click on the photos above, or see today's finish line gallery for all the evidence.
Racing resumes tomorrow morning at 7am. Best of luck to all competing, and to those crews that did not advance today as well.
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