Nine US crews cemented spots on the 2007 team this morning; some by winning actual side-by-side trials races, others by beating their time standard in a solo shot down the course, and at least one simply by rowing down the course at about 85-90% pressure.
This morning's repeat winners in the best of three format were as follows:
- M4+: Ned DelGuercio, Chris Liwski, Sam Burns, Dan Beery and Matt Deakin
- M2+: Dave Florio, Steve Kasprzyk and Patrick Godfrey
- LM2-: Simon Carcagno and Matt Smith
- LW4x: Hannah Moore, Carey Brezler, Sarah Bates and Margaret Duggan
All four have already beaten their time standards, and are named to the 2007 US team; congrats to all!
Five more crews that were either racing unopposed or are camp boats that must meet standard were named to the team by virtue of performance against the time standard:
- W4-: (went 6:36.24, standard is 6:38)
- W4x: Ellen Tomek, Christen Brown, Liane Malcos, Lia Pernell (went 6:23, standard is 6:33)
- W8: Mary Whipple, Caryn Davies, Caroline Lind, Susan Francia, Anna Mickelson, Lindsay Shoop, Anna Goodale, Sam Magee and Brett Sickler (went 6:06, standard is 6:14)
- M4x: Mark Flickinger, Deaglan McEachern, Jamie Schroeder and Sloan DuRoss (went 5:51.39, standard is 5:52)
- LM4x: beat standard yesterday, rowed over to win "trials today
The requirement that the light men's quad's row over the course today is the "WTH" of the weekend; I simply can't figure out why yesterday's solo row down the course would be a "Time Trial" and not a "Final" with a time trial implicitly on the line. I simply can't figure out why a crew that is racing unopposed would race down the course in the middle of the trials schedule yesterday, make the time standard, then have to come back today and row over the course to be named the "trials winner" (some 25 seconds slower than yesterday to boot). Nonetheless, congrats to Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, Jon D'Alba, Cody Lowry and Sam Saylor for beating the standard yesterday, and winning the trials today.
The men's light eight won their "trial" unopposed today, but failed to meet the standard for the second time this week; they will make another attempt Saturday.
The remaining trials events raced the Final One of the best of three format today. In the light women's single, Jen Goldsack eliminated any suspicion that the field would tighten up come finals day, winning by a couple lengths open water again today. The surprise of the day had to be not Warren Anderson's win in the men's single, as he had the fastest time in the semis yesterday, but Ken Jurkowski's elimination in placing fourth. Ahead of Jurkowski Gabe Winkler and Jon Burns gave it a game run, but it was still Anderson's race from pretty early in the proceedings; the top three return for Final Two tomorrow.
In the women's single, Michelle Guerette all but cruised to a win today; her sculling looks really solid in this field this weekend.
The men's pair has to be the event most likely to go to a Final 3; three crews went across 500 to go a couple seconds apart, and it came down to a photo finish at the line between two Training Center crews. After some lackluster races so far this week, the crew of Jason Read and Kyle Larson switched seats for this morning's final, moving Read into bow. The changeup clearly made a considerable difference, and the crew that looked to be an also-ran after rowing through the reps now has a notch in the Win column in the best of three format.
Coming into the regatta you might have picked he light men's single to go to three finals, but over the past few days Ivan Baldytchev, the only sculler to beat time standard yesterday, has put everyone else in the event in the position of chasing him at this point, and his win today looked more convincing than the times showed yesterday. He meets Shane Madden and Rob Zechmann in Final Two tomorrow.
Five events have second finals tomorrow - the men's and women's light and heavy singles, and the men's straight pair. If any go to a third final, it is scheduled to take place tomorrow afternoon; then it's a time standard day on Saturday as needed. Congrats to the newly minted team members, and good luck to everyone still racing.