Fourteen Crews Qualify for U23 Worlds on Tuesday at Trials

SARASOTA, Fla. – Fourteen crews qualified for the World Rowing Under 23 Championships today at USRowing's Under 23 National Team Trials at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.

The winners of the finals earned the right to represent the U.S. at the championships July 7-11 in Racice, Czech Republic. One more boat – the lightweight men's single sculls – will be selected tomorrow.

In the lightweight women's single sculls, Riverside Boat Club's Brigid Kennedy (East Greenwich, R.I.) made her fifth U23 team. Kennedy finished fourth in the lightweight single at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. On Tuesday, she clocked an 8:03.92 to finish more than 27 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Green Racing Project's Anna Matthes (Cambridge, Mass.) easily won the final of the women's single sculls, besting Oak Neck Academy's Elle Barry by more than 12 seconds. Matthes, who raced in the quadruple sculls at the 2017 World Rowing Junior Championships, won the race in a 7:56.62. Barry finished second in an 8:09.13.

Green Racing Project's Will Legenzowski (Vista, N.Y.) earned a trip to Racice in the men's single sculls thanks to an eight-second victory over Isaiah Harrison (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho). Legenzowski finished in a 7:05.29, with Harrison crossing the line in a 7:13.92.

"It was a good race – strong, fast tailwind, so I knew it was going to be fast," Legenzowski said. "I also knew I had some pretty decent competition, so I did not take that lightly. I knew I wanted to get up off the start and watch all the other crews around me and just stay in control – stay in the lead and make the moves accordingly. It feels good to have all of my hard work over the past six to seven months pay off like that."

Penn AC's Josie Konopka (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Kate Maeitta (Wayland, Mass.) won the women's double sculls final by over three seconds, finishing in a 7:29.25. Green Racing Project's Jenna Hardman (Seattle, Wash.) and Gabrielle DiMarco (Boothwyn, Pa.) finished second in a 7:32.84.

In the men's double sculls, Green Racing Project's Tucker Thomas (Naples, Fla.) and Simon Hatcher (Portland, Ore.) won the final by more than eight seconds, clocking a 6:36.54 to finish ahead of the OARS composite crew of Keith Ryan (Tiburon, Calif.) and Zachary Vachal (San Francisco, Calif.)

"I think it was a great race," Hatcher said. "I think our strategy was based on the idea that we have a really strong start, so we knew that we would have a good chance of getting up right off of the start. We started, took some high strokes and found ourselves just a little bit ahead. We hung in that position for a little bit and just kept picking up speed and widening that margin."

In the women's pair, 2018 World Rowing Junior Championships silver medalists Lucy Koven (Greenwich, Conn.) and Caitlin Esse (Fairfield, Conn.) easily won their final, clocking a 7:30.35 to finish 26 seconds ahead of the second-place boat.

In the men's pair, the unaffiliated crew of William Purtill (Villanova, Pa.) and Michael Wilson (Braintree, Mass.) clocked a 7:00.46 to win the race by nearly seven seconds. Wilson previously raced on the U23 team in 2019, finishing fourth in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls.

Green Racing Project's Elaine Tierney (West Chester, Pa.) and Emily Molins (Wilmette, Ill.) won the final of the lightweight women's double sculls. The duo finished with a time of 7:30.54 to win by 19 seconds. Molins is now a two-time U23 team member, having won a silver medal in the lightweight women's pair in 2019.

In the lightweight men's pair, Riverside Boat Club's Collin Hay (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Nathaniel Sass (Buffalo, N.Y.) defeated New York Athletic Club's John Gallagher (Newton, Pa.) and Gil Dexter (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) by a little more than five seconds to win the final. Hay returns to an event that he finished sixth in at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

In the lightweight men's quadruple sculls, Evergreen Rowing Camp's Jack Stone (Providence, R.I.), Cooper Tuckerman (Bozeman, Mont.), Christopher Stich (Old Greenwich, Conn.) and Sean Ward (Downingtown, Pa.) bested hometown Sarasota Crew to win the final by less than two seconds. Evergreen finished with a time of 6:02.93, with Sarasota crossing in a 6:04.60.

Four crews raced uncontested to claim their spots on the U23 team. White Rock Boathouse's Andrew Michael Curry (Dallas, Texas), Jordan Backer (Sacramento, Calif.), Louis Gallia (Sacramento, Calif.) and William Roesler (Oakland, Calif.) won the men's four.

Conshohocken Rowing Center's Simon Dubiel (Seattle, Wash.) and Eli Rabinowitz (Rye, N.Y.) won the lightweight men's double sculls, while Lindsey Rust (Roslyn, N.Y.) and Bonnie Pushner (Fairfield, Conn.) won the lightweight women's pair.

Mission Rowing's Ruthie Lacy (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Grace Beery (Seattle, Wash.), Grace D'Souza (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) and Isabella Bagley (Moorestown, N.J.) won the lightweight women's quadruple sculls.

In addition to the 14 finals, heats of the lightweight men's single sculls took place this afternoon. SoCal Scullers' Charles Koontz (Ridgewood, N.J.) won the first heat in a 7:23.69, while Oak Neck Academy's Nicholas Aronow (Laurel Hollow, N.Y.), who represented the U.S. in the single sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships, won the second heat in a 7:25.26.

Racing continues in the U23 events tomorrow with a morning repechage and an afternoon final in the lightweight men's single sculls. Click here for today's full results.

USRowing is hosting national team trials all week in Sarasota to select athletes for the World Rowing Under 23 Championships, World Rowing Junior Championships and World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals. In total, more than 140 athletes are racing for the chance to represent the U.S. later this year at one of the three regattas.

The Under 19 National Team Trials will be held on Wednesday, with time trials in the morning and finals in the afternoon. There are 28 crews entered across the six events. The winners earn the right to race at the 2021 World Rowing Junior Championships scheduled for August 11-15 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The Beach Sprints National Team Trials will take place on Saturday on South Lido Key Beach. Twenty-eight crews are entered across eight events, four open and four junior. This is the first year that USRowing will select a team to race at the World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals, which are scheduled to take place September 24-26 in Oeiras, Portugal. The national team trials open with a time trial, followed by a bracket-style, head-to-head racing format.

Racing is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Saturday's Beach Sprints racing is slated to start at 8:30 a.m. The schedule, heat sheets and results for all three events will be available here throughout the week.