Women's Single, Men's Double Selected at 2022 Senior National Team Trials 2

Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley/Texas Rowing Center High Performance) won the women's single sculls, while Thomas Phifer (New York, N.Y./Middlebury College/ Penn Athletic Club) and Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University/California Rowing Club) won the men's double sculls to earn spots on the 2022 World Rowing Championships' roster Tuesday at the 2022 Senior National Team Trials 2 on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J.

The two boats earned the right to represent the U.S. at the 2022 World Rowing Championships September 18-25 in Racice, Czech Republic.

In the women's single, Kohler, a two-time Olympian and the 2019 World Rowing Championships' bronze medalist in the boat, defeated Lauren O'Connor (Belleville, Wis./University of Wisconsin/ARION) by just over six seconds to earn her ninth national team berth. Kohler finished with a time of 7:32.46, with O'Connor finishing in a 7:38.48.

"It was a very short and sweet regatta," Kohler said. "Very nervous. I never want to underestimate anybody, but I have big goals in the single, so today was just a step along that path."

For Kohler, it was a nerve-wracking couple of weeks after removing herself from the team in the women's double sculls following the Henley Royal Regatta in order to concentrate on the single.

"It's been a pretty difficult couple of weeks leading up, just mentally," Kohler said. "It was a difficult decision to remove myself from the double after qualifying that, but I realized that the single was where my heart is and what I want to race."

In the men's double sculls, Phifer and Koszyk came back from a third-place finish in yesterday's time trial to win the final by nearly seven seconds over Koven Training Center's Will Legenzowski (Vista, N.Y./Brown University/Koven Training Center) and Liam Galloway (Ridgefield, Conn./Yale University/Koven Training Center). Phifer and Koszyk crossed the finish line with a time of 6:14.98, with Legenzowski and Galloway finishing second in a 6:21.71. Eliot Putnam (Littleton, Mass./Cornell University/Penn Athletic Club) and Greg Davis (Hillsborough, Calif./Cornell University/New York Athletic Club), who won yesterday's time trial, finished third.

"We just wanted to try to control the race as early as possible," Phifer said. "We knew the other boats would be going out hard, going for our throats. We tried to stay as cool as possible, keep in contact, and then just use our fitness to get us through the whole (2,000 meters). This is a long-time coming, and we're both really happy to be here. We had a good productive summer, and this is just the next step."

Koszyk, who was a member of the men's quadruple sculls crew that raced at the 2021 World Rowing Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, will be racing at his first world championships, as will Phifer.

"I'm pretty happy. It's a good time to be establishing yourself as a player early on, and hopefully, we're able to do it again at the right time," said Koszyk.

Complete results are available on HereNow.com.

USRowing would like to thank Filippi Lido, the Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Senior, Under 23, and Para-Rowing National Teams. Under the agreement, Filippi is providing USRowing a fleet of boats for international competitions including the World Rowing Cup regattas, World Rowing Under 23 Championships, World Rowing Championships, Olympic Games, and Paralympic Games, as well as a domestic training fleet for the USRowing Training Center.