Finals Set at USRowing’s 2024 Winter Speed Order

With semifinals in the books, finals are now set at USRowing's 2024 Winter Speed Order at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla.

With racing taking place in the men's and women's single sculls and pairs, the speed order not only serves as an opportunity for rowers to test their speed ahead of April's U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing but also gives them a chance to earn automatic invitations to the Olympic Selection Camp scheduled for March 3-24 in Sarasota. The top three finishers in each event during Saturday's finals will receive invitations to the selection camp.

In the women's single sculls, Sarasota Training Center's Sophia Vitas (Franklin, Wis./University of Wisconsin), a four-time national team member who won bronze in the women's double sculls at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, and ARION's Lauren O'Connor (Belleville, Wis./University of Wisconsin), who raced in the women's quadruple sculls at last year's world championships, won the two semifinals. Vitas posted the fastest time, winning the second semifinal in a 7:34.01 ahead of Cambridge Boat Club/Long Beach Rowing Association's Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Mass./St. Lawrence University). Fellows crossed in a 7:35.24 with USRowing Training Center-Princeton's Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) taking third in a 7:39.61. In the first semifinal, O'Connor bested New York Athletic Club's Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) by less than a half-second, crossing the line in a 7:36.81 with Reckford finishing in a 7:37.13. USTC-Princeton's Teal Cohen (Dallas, Texas/University of Washington) finished third in a 7:40.53 and will round out tomorrow's final.

"This morning's piece was a lot of fun," O'Connor said. "It was great racing, and it gave me a chance to work on my sprint a little with Molly pushing me. I got to execute my race plan but still keep it controlled, which was good practice. My focus for the final is just maintaining my control and consistency. I've been working on a lot of technical changes, and I want to carry those into racing, but also take the opportunity to really push for the fastest time possible."

California Rowing Club's Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University) and CRC's Ben Davison (Inverness, Fla./University of Washington), who rowed together in the men's double sculls at last year's world championships, won the two semifinals in the men's single sculls. Racing in the second semifinal, Koszyk defeated CRC teammate Will Legenzowski (Vista, N.Y./Brown University) by more than seven seconds, finishing with a time of 6:51.82. Legenzowski crossed in a 6:58.96, with CRC's Andrew LeRoux (Venice, Fla./Princeton University) taking third. Davison won the first semifinal by just under three seconds, clocking a 6:58.14. Sarasota Training Center's Michael Knippen (Germantown, Wis./University of Wisconsin) finished second in a 7:01.10, with Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Jacob Plihal (Vashon Island, Wash./Northeastern University) taking third in a 7:01.57 to also advance to the final.

"I thought the race this morning went okay," Koszyk said. "I would probably grade it around a B. I need to make sure I'm staying loose and flat going into the final."

In the women's pair, California Rowing Club's Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y./Ithaca College) and Alie Rusher (West Bend, Wis./Stanford University), who finished sixth in the event at last year's world championships, posted the fastest time of the three semifinals, winning the first semi in a 7:12.39. USTC-Princeton's Kaitlin Knifton (Austin, Texas/University of Texas) and Emily Kallfelz (Jamestown, R.I./Princeton University) finished second, crossing less than one second behind in a 7:12.99. USTC- Princeton's Molly Bruggeman (Dayton, Ohio/University of Notre Dame) and Regina Salmons (Methuen, Mass./University of Pennsylvania) won the second semifinal in a 7:14.54, finishing more than four seconds ahead of the USTC-Princeton/Craftsbury Green Racing Project composite crew of Kelsey Reelick (Brookfield, Conn./Princeton University) and Mary Mazzio-Manson (Wellesley, Mass./Yale University). Reelick and Mazzio-Manson took the second qualifying spot by just 0.04 seconds, edging the USTC-Princeton/Craftsbury composite boat of Emily Froehlich (Fishers, Ind./University of Texas) and Margaret Hedeman (Concord, Mass./Yale University) by a bowball. In the third semifinal, USTC – Princeton's Claire Collins (McLean, Va./Princeton University) and Madeleine Wanamaker (Neenah, Wis./University of Wisconsin/), who won bronze in the event at the 2022 World Rowing Championships, took the top spot in a 7:16.83. USTC-Princeton's Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y./Harvard University) and Azja Czajkowski (Imperial Beach, Calif./Stanford University) finished second in a 7:18.36 to also advance.

"The piece was solid. We had aggressive, side-by-side racing with Kallfelz and Knifton the whole way down the course, so it's always fun to feed off of each other's energy like that," Rusher said. "The focus for tomorrow is to build off of what we learned yesterday and today and leave nothing in the tank."

In the men's pair, CRC's Liam Corrigan (Old Lyme, Conn./Harvard University) and Michael Grady (Pittsburgh, Pa./Cornell University) posted the fastest time of the two semifinals, winning the second race in a 6:35.62 ahead of Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Ezra Carlson (Eureka, Calif./University of Washington) and Alexander Hedge (Morristown, N.J./Columbia University), the 2023 Pan American Games' gold medalists in the event. Carlson and Hedge clocked a 6:37.83. CRC's Peter Chatain (Winnetka, Ill./Stanford University) and Henry Hollingsworth (Dover, Mass./Brown University) finished third in a 6:38.59. In the first semifinal, CRC's Pieter Quinton (Portland, Ore./Harvard University) and Oliver Bub (Westport, Conn./Dartmouth College) took the top spot in a 6:37.26, finishing more than two seconds ahead of the New York Athletic Club/CRC composite crew of Nick Mead (Strafford, Pa./Princeton University) and Justin Best (Kennett Square, Pa./Drexel University). Mead and Best finished with a time of 6:39.62. The CRC/Penn AC composite crew of Evan Olson (Bothell, Wash./University of Washington) and William Bender (Norwich, Vt./Dartmouth College), who finished fifth in the event at last year's world championships, took third in a 6:40.01, rounding out the final.

Speed order racing concludes Saturday with finals in all four boat classes. Racing is scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m. Click for heat sheets and results throughout the regatta.

Rowing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place July 27-August 4. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing will take place April 2-7 in Sarasota. Click here to see a quick guide to Olympic and Paralympic qualification.

USRowing would like to thank our national team sponsors including our Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Senior, Under 23, and Para Rowing National Teams, Filippi Lido; our Official Apparel Provider, 776BC; our Official Partner, Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., our Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Under 19 National Team, Hudson; our Exclusive Supplement Supplier, Thorne HealthTech; our Official Performance Electronics Outfitter, Nielsen-Kellerman; the National Rowing Foundation; and TrainingPeaks, the Official Training and Coaching Software of USRowing's High Performance Team.