Beach Sprints National Team Trials to Take Place Saturday

SARASOTA, Fla. – USRowing will be hosting its first-ever Beach Sprints National Team Trials on Saturday at South Lido Key Beach.

Twenty-eight crews are entered across eight events, four open and four junior, with the event winners earning the right to race at the World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals scheduled to take place September 24-26 in Oeiras, Portugal.

Each event opens with a time trial, followed by a bracket-style, head-to-head racing format.

Great Miami Rowing Center out of Hamilton, Ohio, has the most entries with seven, while The Steward's Foundation out of Tampa has six entries.

In the men's single, six scullers are entered in the event including local product Travis Taaffe, who rowed for Sarasota Crew in high school before heading to Harvard University. He now rows for Gainesville Area Rowing as he attends law school at the University of Florida. Great Miami's Christopher Bak also is entered in the event. It's one of three events in which Bak is competing.

Newport Aquatic Center's Hillary Saeger, a seven-time senior national team member, is one of four rowers entered in the women's single. Saeger has three world championship medals on her flat-water resume and most recently represented the U.S. at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. Like her teammate Bak, Great Miami's Cassidy Norton also is competing in three events on Saturday including the women's single.

Bak and Norton will row together as one of the six crews entered in the mixed double sculls. The duo also will race in the mixed quadruple sculls with Kory Rogers and Brooke Downes, who are also tripling up in racing this weekend. The other mixed quad includes six-time national team member Christine Cavallo from Windermere, Fla. Cavallo has represented the U.S. on junior, under 23 and senior national teams and is trying to add the Beach Sprints National Team to her resume.

In the junior events, four scullers are entered in the junior men's single including three from The Steward's Foundation. Two boats are entered in the junior women's single, junior men's double and junior mixed double.

Racing is slated to start on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. with the singles, followed by the quads and then the doubles. The race schedule can be found here. Click here for photos from Friday's practice.