2022 USRowing Beach Sprint National Team Trials to Take Place Friday

After fielding a national team for the first time ever and winning two medals at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals last year in Oeiras, Portugal, USRowing will be selecting its 2022 Beach Sprint National Team Friday at the 2022 USRowing Beach Sprint National Team Trials on South Lido Key Beach in Sarasota, Fla. Thirty-five boats are entered across nine events – four open and five junior – with the event winners earning the right to race at the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals scheduled to take place October 14-16 in Saundersfoot, Great Britain. Each event opens with a time trial, followed by a bracket-style, head-to-head racing format. The Stewards Foundation, Inc., has the most entries with nine boats scheduled to race, followed by Potomac Boat Club with seven and Next Level Rowing with six. The open mixed double sculls event has eight crews entered. Elizabeth Hinley (McHenry County, Ill.), who raced the event at last year's Beach Sprint Finals in Portugal with Kory Rogers (The Woodlands, Texas), will race with Potomac's John Olbrys (Arlington, Va.) this year. Olbrys was part of the mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain crew that won the bronze medal in Portugal. New Orleans Rowing Club's John Huppi (Reston, Va.) and Hannah Huppi (Bellingham, Wash.) were part of that quad as well and will be racing together in the mixed double. Rogers will be rowing for Next Level Rowing with Isabelle Foster (Old Lyme, Conn.) Seven boats are entered in the open women's single sculls including Next Level Rowing's Cassidy Norton (Hamilton, Ohio), who won the trials last year and reached the quarterfinals in Portugal. Norton also will race in the mixed double at the trials. Hinley and Huppi also are entered in the single. Six boats are entered in the open men's single sculls including Next Level Rowing's Christopher Bak (Cincinnati, Ohio), who won trials last year. At the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, Bak won the time trial and then his round of 16 matchup before missing a buoy and getting knocked out in the quarterfinals. He is looking for redemption this year, and it all starts with this week's trials. "I think there is a little bit of healthy nerves, which is always good before a competition," said Bak. "I'm hoping to repeat last year (at trials) – get a little bit of redemption for what happened last year at worlds. There's some really good competition – a lot of people who are coming from across the country, so I'm really excited to race and test my speed against everyone." Bak has been focused on Beach Sprint racing since last year's races in Portugal. "I was down in Peru; won that event down there, and I think something that worked really well – that last year I struggled a bit with – was just energy conservation," said Bak on what he has been working on. "Being able to conserve energy between races and be really relaxed and always forward thinking to the next race, 'What can I do to save energy for it.' And then again, just focusing one race at a time. In Beach Sprints, the ocean is the ocean, and it's going to do whatever it wants to do when you are out there. It can be a bit unpredictable sometimes, so just recognizing that and quite literally riding the waves as they are." The open mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain event has three entries including the New Orleans/Potomac composite crew, which includes four members of the bronze-medal boat from Portugal. Hinley joins the Huppis, Olbrys, and coxswain Bennett Rossell (Palm City, Fla./Stetson University) in the lineup. Three scullers are entered in the junior men's single sculls including The Stewards Foundation's Brian O'Leary (Port Charlotte, Fla.), who reached the quarterfinals in Portugal last year. O'Leary also will be rowing with Stewards' teammate Britt Wotovich (Redington Beach, Fla.) in the junior mixed double sculls. The duo won silver in Portugal and are up against one other crew this week in Sarasota. Wotovich also will be racing in the junior women's single sculls and the junior women's double sculls. Wotovich is one of two scullers entered in the single sculls. She finished fourth in the event last year in Portugal. The other entry is Great Miami Rowing Center's Annalie Duncomb (Mason, Ohio), who will row with Wotovich uncontested in the junior women's double. The junior men's double sculls event has three entries including the Lake Leelanau/Rose City composite crew of Leo Lombardi (Traverse City, Mich.) and Joshua Li (Lake Oswego, Ore.). Li raced in the event last year in Portugal with a different partner. Beach Sprint racing is contested in a run, row, run combination over a 250-meter, out-and-back buoyed course and uses a time trial and knock-out progression system. Racing is slated to start Friday at 9:00 a.m. with the time trials and is scheduled to conclude around 4:40 p.m. Saturday is the reserve day in case of inclement weather. Click here for more event information.