Racing at Second 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing Gets Underway on Monday

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – The next pieces to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic team roster puzzle will come into place beginning Monday as racing at the second U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing gets underway.

With entries closing this past weekend, 62 athletes in 27 boats are scheduled to race at Mercer Lake during the five-day event.

While six boat classes will be contested in New Jersey, only four – the women's double sculls, PR1 men's single sculls, PR1 women's single sculls and PR2 mixed double sculls crews – will lock up their spots for Tokyo, pending USOPC approval. The winners of the men's pair and men's quadruple sculls will earn the right to race at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta May 15-17 to try to claim their spots on the Olympic roster.

With an Olympic berth on the line in the women's double sculls, 2016 Olympic finalists Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La./University of Virginia) and Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich./ University of Michigan) will be looking to return the Games in the event. Tomek, a 10-time national team member and two-time Olympian, and O'Leary, a six-time national team member, have a pair of medals in the double over the last quadrennial, winning silver at the 2017 World Rowing Championships and bronze at the 2018 World Rowing Championships.

However, a return to the Games for the New York Athletic Club duo will be challenging, as the deep field includes 16 entries. Cambridge Boat Club's Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University), the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the women's single sculls, represented the U.S. in the women's double sculls with Cicely Madden (Weston, Mass./Brown University), in 2019, winning a silver medal at World Rowing Cup II and finishing fifth at the World Rowing Championships, less than one second off the medal stand. Stone will partner with ARION's Kristina Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) at the trials. Stone and Wagner finished second and third, respectively, in the women's single sculls at the first 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing in late February. Madden will row with Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Mass./St. Lawrence University), who finished fourth in the single's trials in February.

The Cambridge Boat Club/Sarasota Crew composite boat of Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) and Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) won the lightweight women's double sculls at the Olympic Trials in February but still needs to qualify for the Games at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May. The duo will test their speed in the open weight category as they prepare for the qualification regatta next month. In addition, two USRowing Training Center-Princeton entries are in the field, as are four boats from ARION and two Craftsbury Green Racing Project crews.

In the PR2 mixed double sculls, Bair Island Aquatic Center's Laura Goodkind (Los Angeles, Calif./Whittier College) and Russell Gernaat (Redwood City, Calif.), a member of USRowing's Freedom Rows program for disabled veterans, finished eighth at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, qualifying the U.S. for Tokyo. The duo will try to secure their spots on the Paralympic roster with a trials' victory in New Jersey. Goodkind, who is a four-time national team member, is looking to make her second Paralympic team, while Gernaat, a two-time national team member, is vying for his first Paralympic team. They will race against the Community Rowing boat of Patrick Ward (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) – another Freedom Rows' athlete – and Jennifer Fitz-Roy (Brighton, Mass.).

In the PR1 women's single sculls, 2018 World Rowing Championships bronze medalist Hallie Smith (Washington, D.C./Smith College), rowing out of Community Rowing, Inc., will be locking up her first trip to the Paralympics. Rowing uncontested, the three-time national team member began rowing in January of 2016, making her first national team just over a year later.

In the PR1 men's single sculls, San Diego Rowing Club's Blake Haxton (Columbus, Ohio/Ohio State University) also will be racing uncontested. The six-time national team member placed fourth in the event at the 2016 Paralympic Games, as well as at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. Haxton, who took up para canoe in 2019, will get his chance to qualify for the Paralympics in that sport next month in Szeged, Hungary.

The men's quadruple sculls field includes six boats vying for the chance to head to the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. The USRowing Training Center-Oakland entry includes Michael Knippen (Germantown, Wis. /University of Wisconsin), who represented the U.S. in the event at the last two World Rowing Championships. Knippen will race with Andrew Gaard (Madison, Wis./University of Washington), Spencer Furey (Far Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College), and Oliver Bub (Westport, Conn./Dartmouth College).

The Long Beach Junior Crew entry is stroked by Thomas Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College), who raced in the quad at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in 2016. He will row with Thomas Phifer (New York, N.Y./Middlebury College), Connor Corwen (New Rochelle, N.Y./Bucknell University) and Hugh McAdam (Hollis, N.H./Washington College), while the Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia crew includes two-time national team member Justin Keen (Philadelphia, Pa./Penn State University) rowing with Charles Anderson (Upper Darby, Pa./Temple University), Eliot Putnam (Littleton, Mass./Cornell University) and Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University). Lucas Bellows (Forest Lake, Minn./University of Minnesota), who finished second in the men's single sculls at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in February, will race with Matthew O'Leary (Westwood, Mass./Harvard University), Jacob Plihal (Vashon Island, Wash./Northeastern University) and Travis Taaffe (Sarastoa, Fla./Harvard University) as part of a composite boat.

In the men's pair, Olympians Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich./University of Michigan) and Mike DiSanto (Boston, Mass./Harvard University) will race uncontested in order to solidify their right to compete at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May. Peszek, a 10-time national team member, is trying to make his second Olympic Games. He raced the pair at the London 2012 Olympics, finishing eighth. DiSanto, a six-time national team member, finished fourth in the eight at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Racing will open with time trials on Monday. Heats will take place on Tuesday, with repechages taking place on Wednesday. Thursday will feature semifinals in the Olympic events and finals in the Paralympic events, with finals in the Olympic events taking place on Friday. Racing is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. each day. Due to COVID-19, there will be no spectators allowed on the Caspersen Boathouse side of the park.

Semifinals and finals will be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

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.

Click here for the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Qualification Process Quick Guide.

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.

About Princeton National Rowing Association

The Princeton National Rowing Association (PNRA), a 501(c)3 organization, operates the Finn M.W. Caspersen Rowing Center located on the shores of Mercer Lake, Mercer County Park in West Windsor, N.J. PNRA is dedicated to providing a venue where athletes of all ages, talents and backgrounds have the opportunity to develop their rowing abilities to their highest potential. As a United States Olympic Training Site, PNRA is home to the USRowing National Team, as well as scholastic and community rowing programs. PNRA runs the Mercer Junior and Masters Rowing Programs and conducts outreach activities seeking to expand the involvement in rowing in the greater Mercer County, N.J., region.