First 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing Underway in Sarasota

SARASOTA, Fla. – Eleven months after its original start date, the first 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing got underway Monday at Nathan Benderson Park with time trials in the women's single sculls, men's single sculls, men's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls and lightweight men's double sculls.

While five boat classes will be contested during the five-day event, only the winner of the women's single will earn her ticket to Tokyo, pending USOPC approval. The other four event winners will need to race at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta May 15-17 to claim their spots on the Olympic roster.

In the lightweight women's double sculls, the Cambridge Boat Club/Sarasota Crew composite entry of Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) and Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) recorded the fastest time of the time trial, finishing in a 6:30.06. Sechser, an eight-time national team member, raced in the lightweight double at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and won a bronze medal in the lightweight single sculls at the 2017 World Rowing Championships held in Sarasota. Reckford made her first national team in 2019, racing in the lightweight quadruple sculls.

Sechser and Reckford finished ahead of the Cambridge/Potomac Boat Club composite crew of Mary Jones (Huntsville, Ala./University of Tennessee) and Emily Schmieg (Philadelphia, Pa./University of Pittsburgh), the 2018 World Rowing Championships' silver medalists. Jones and Schmieg finished with a time of 6:47.29. Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Grace Joyce (Northfield, Ill./University of Wisconsin) and Christine Cavallo (Windermere, Fla./Stanford University) followed less that 0.1 seconds behind. Mission Rowing's Sophie Heywood (Tempe Ariz./University of Wisconsin) and Sophia Denison-Johnston (Berkeley, Calif./UCLA) rounded out the top four.

In the lightweight men's double sculls, Vesper Boat Club's Zachary Heese (Pelham, N.Y./University of Virginia) and Jasper Liu (Phoenix, Ariz./University of Pennsylvania) crossed the finish line with a time of 6:06.92, finishing nearly seven seconds ahead of teammates Jimmy McCullough (Philadelphia, Pa./ University of Delaware) and Josh Remland (Temecula, Calif./Brown University). McCullough and Remland finished with a time of 6:13.82. The Riverside Boat Club composite crew of Alex Twist (Boston, Mass./University of Puget Sound) and Hugh McAdam (Hollis, N.H./Washington College) finished third. Heese and Liu raced together in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.

In the women's single sculls, USRowing Training Center – Princeton's Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley), the reigning world championships' bronze medalist, got off to a strong start Monday morning, posting the fastest time in the time trials. Kohler crossed the finish line in 7:08.61, just over three seconds ahead of Cambridge's Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University), the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the event. Stone finished with a time of 7:11.83. USTC-Princeton's Sophia Vitas (Franklin, Wis./University of Wisconsin) finished third, just ahead of ARION's Kristina Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) and Cambridge's Cicely Madden (Weston, Mass./Brown University).

In the men's single sculls, Craftsbury's John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College), a six-time senior national team member who raced in the quadruple sculls in 2019, won the time trial, finishing in 6:37.20. Malta Boat Club's Leonard Futterman (New York, N.Y./Boston University) finished second in a 6:39.35, followed by Penn AC's Thomas Phifer (New York, N.Y./Middlebury College) and Craftsbury's Lucas Bellows (Forest Lake, Minn./University of Minnesota). Gainesville Area Rowing's Travis Taaffe, a Sarasota native who rowed at Harvard University, crossed the line in fifth.

"It's a pretty big deal," Taaffe said of rowing at the Olympic Trials in his hometown. "This has been a dream of mine all along. This is my first go at it, and I'm excited to be here at the home course. It's pretty special."

Craftsbury's Jacob Plihal (Vashon Island, Wash./Northeastern University) and Mark Couwenhoven (Parkton, Md./ University of Maryland - Baltimore County) finished just ahead of Penn AC's Charles Anderson (Upper Darby, Pa./Temple University) and Eliot Putnam (Littleton, Mass./Cornell University) in the men's double sculls time trial. Pilhal and Couwenhoven crossed the line with a time of 6:08.85, 0.65 seconds in front of the Penn AC boat. The Vesper Boat Club/Oklahoma City High Performance Center composite crew of Jonathan Kirkegaard (Philadelphia, Pa./Purdue University) and Kevin Cardno (Huntsville, Ala./ University of Alabama, Huntsville) placed third.

Click here for complete results from today's racing.

Racing continues on Tuesday with heats, followed by the repechages on Wednesday. Semifinals will be held Thursday, with finals taking place on Friday. Racing begins at 8 a.m. EST each day, with the exception of Friday's finals, which start at 8:30 a.m. In total, 111 athletes in 85 boats are racing during the five-day event.

Due to COVID-19, there will be no spectators allowed on the island at Nathan Benderson Park. Semifinals and finals racing will be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App.

The second 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials will take place April 12-16 in West Windsor, N.J. That regatta will feature racing in the women's double sculls, men's quadruple sculls, men's pair, PR1 men's single sculls, PR1 women's single sculls and PR2 mixed double sculls.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be held July 23-August 9, with rowing events slated to start on the morning of July 23. The Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 are scheduled to take place August 24-September 5, with para rowing events starting August 27.

United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee

Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. The USOPC is focused on protecting, supporting and empowering America's athletes, and is responsible for fielding U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, and serving as the steward of the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the U.S. A federally chartered nonprofit corporation, the USOPC does not receive federal financial support (other than for select Paralympic military veteran programs) and is one of only four NOCs in the world that also manages Paralympic activities. More information is available at TeamUSA.org.

USRowing

USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing has 83,000 individual members and 1,350 member organizations, offering rowing programs for all. USRowing receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners.

Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates Inc.

Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates Inc. (SANCA) is a not-for-profit 501c3 business created to manage Nathan Benderson Park (NBP), a community/public asset and world-class, multi-use sports venue. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for our community and be an economic generator for our region. SANCA's primary purpose is to develop and promote NBP as a world class event center, team training site and Sarasota County park, while providing outreach programs through recreation, safety training, education and volunteering as a service to our community. For more information, go to nathanbendersonpark.org/about-us/sanca-mission.