Stone, Wagner Punch Their Tickets to Tokyo at 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University) and Kristina Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) secured their spots for Tokyo on Thursday, pulling away from the field in the final 500 meters to win the women's double sculls final at the 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials – Rowing.

For Stone, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the women's single sculls, today's victory secured her third Olympic berth, while Wagner earned her first trip to the Games.

"I wasn't thinking about number three," Stone said. "I was thinking about getting to go to the Olympics again as its own separate experience. It's been a long road, a long turnpike as I say, because the tolls have been paid – the extra year. But, it's been really fun to hop in the double the last six weeks and have it come together. It was really fun to execute a good race going down the course today and to have a chance to have our best race."

After finishing second and third, respectively, in the women's single sculls event at the first 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing in late February, Stone and Wagner came together in the double. Six weeks later, the duo is heading to Tokyo.

"I've been working hard for the last four years, really hard the past two years," Wagner said. "When the Olympics were postponed, I saw that as an opportunity for myself and capitalized on it. Getting in the double has been an awesome opportunity in learning from Gevvie, and I can't wait to keep doing it. Ninety-nine days (until Tokyo)!"

Stone and Wagner got off the line in third position before moving into second place as the crews approached the midway point of the race. The duo then began to reel in the early leaders, New York Athletic Club's Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La./University of Virginia) and Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich./ University of Michigan). Stone and Wagner came up even just after the 1,000-meter mark and then made a strong move with about 650 meters to go to begin to move away from the rest of the field.

As they crossed the 1,500-meter mark, Stone and Wagner had almost a length on O'Leary and Tomek and they continued to build on that margin through the finish. At the line, Stone and Wagner won with a time of 7:07.21. 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), who won the lightweight double sculls at the first Olympic Trials in February, finished second with a time of 7:11.09.

Tomek and O'Leary, 2016 Olympic finalists in the event, finished third in a 7:11.94, with the USRowing Training Center – Princeton crew of Jenifer Forbes (Baltimore, Md./Northeastern University) and Sophia Vitas (Franklin, Wis./University of Wisconsin) finishing fourth.

"I mean, it's there in the back of your mind all the time," said Stone in regards to thinking about Tokyo. "When you go to the start line at an Olympic Trials, you're thinking you're racing for Tokyo. How would you not think about that? Kristi actually called it in the last five strokes. She said, 'Olympics,' and at that point, it was clear we were going."

While Stone and Wagner were the only two athletes to qualify for the Olympics on Thursday, pending USOPC approval, two additional crews came one step closer to earning their spots in Tokyo.

Today's winners of the men's quadruple sculls and men's pair earned the right to race at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta May 15-17 to try to make the Olympic roster.

In the final of the men's quadruple sculls, the Penn AC/Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia composite crew of Charles Anderson (Upper Darby, Pa./Temple University), Justin Keen (Philadelphia, Pa./Penn State University), Eliot Putnam (Littleton, Mass./Cornell University) and Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University) clocked a 5:57.57 to earn the right to go to the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta.

"We're excited. We're halfway there," Keen said. "We know the next test is probably going to be harder. It's going to be tight, but we're looking forward to the challenge."

The crew got off the line just about even with the USRowing Training Center-Oakland entry of Andrew Gaard (Madison, Wis./University of Washington), Michael Knippen (Germantown, Wis. /University of Wisconsin), Spencer Furey (Far Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College), and Oliver Bub (Westport, Conn./Dartmouth College), and continued to race bow-ball to bow-ball through the 1,000-meter mark. That's when the Penn AC composite boat made its move, taking the lead in the third quarter of the race and pushing out to an open-water advantage with 500 meters to go.

"We knew the training center crew was going to be fast off the line," Anderson said. "Our plan was to stay with them and go at the (1,000-meter mark), and we executed that pretty well. We just did what we've been doing the past two months together – just training that second half, moving together."

The Penn AC crew continued to hold that margin the rest of the way down the course, winning by more than four seconds.

In the final of the men's pair, Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich./University of Michigan) and Mike DiSanto (Boston, Mass./Harvard University) raced uncontested to solidify their right to compete at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. 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. On Thursday, the duo finished with a time of 6:41.72 in the race against the clock.

"Keep working hard, find a little more speed," said Peszek about their final preparations for Lucerne. "You never know who is going to show up. That's not too key to our mentality. You can't control what happens in the other lanes, so for us, we're going to go from A to B as quickly as we can, and if anybody else can hang with us, good for them, but that's what we're going to do."

Click here for complete results.

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.