See row2k's photo gallery from the racing here.
Year Two of the quadrennial cycle is always an interesting one, producing a mix of competitors from a broad swath of pedigree and experience levels, training locations, and sometimes even generations. This year's trials features an intriguing mix of newcomers and stalwarts, rising stars and veteran warriors, fresh faces, comeback bids, and last shots.
On the fresh faces front, how about 20-year-old James Dietz II, who ended up in what was clearly the tightest and fastest heat of the day with Jamie Schroeder and Jon Burns; the three were within closed water with 500 to go before Burns blasted out a move just across the buoys that earned some distance on Dietz and turned the heat into a two-boat race to the line that Schroeder just barely nabbed.
Among the veteran warriors and comeback bids, the two most high profile entries have to be Nick Peterson in the men's single, and Lisa Schlenker in the light women's single. Peterson's last big event was in winning the petite final in the men's 4x in Sydney in 2000 (which officially qualifies as late in the last century), and Schlenker has not rowed a single race since winning the petite final at the Olympics in Athens. She seemed to be on her game today, rowing hard to an early lead, then flirting with ratings in the high 20s at times in the second 1000.
The trials also looks likely to be run in the east coast heat wave of the year, with temps of over 100 degrees predicted for Monday and Tuesday before a cooling trend will knock highs all the way down to 95 on Thursday. Temperatures were already into the mid 80s by the end of racing at 8:30am, which wasn't too bad, and few scullers were complaining about the reasonable but insistent tailwind that built throughout the racing - save for the scullers who raced in the first couple heats before the tailwind became much of a factor.
Heats for three events were contested today, the men's single, and the light men's and women's single; in each event this morning, heat winners advanced directly to the Tuesday semifinals, while all others will race again tonight in the repechages. All other events go straight to tomorrow morning's Final One in the best-of-three trials format.
Merely winning the best-of-three trials format isn't enough to earn the right to represent the USA at the World Championships; you must also meet a time standard. Scullers that beat the standard today (when comparing to standard, official times are rounded down to the nearest second):
For your convenience, here are the time standards in all boats for 2006:
Olympic Events:
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