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National Selection Regatta #2 Complete

May 14, 2011

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – Six more crews earned the opportunity to travel to Europe for a world cup event of their choosing and race for a place on the roster of the national team that will compete at the 2011 World Championships in Bled, Slovenia this summer.

If any of the crews that won this morning at the 2011 National Selection Regatta #2 go to Europe and finish in the top four (or top half if there are fewer than eight entries), at one of the Rowing World Cup regattas they will be nominated to the team.

In the first final of the morning, the men’s double sculls, USRowing Training Center – Chula Vista’s Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Will Miller (Duxbury, Mass.) led through the 1,000-meter mark and pushed through to win in 6:28.73.

USTC – Chula Vista teammates Warren Anderson (Paso Robles, Calif.) and Wes Piermarini (West Brookfield, Mass.) were second in 6:31.23 and Jamie Koven (Greenvillage, N.J.) and Elliot Hovey (Manchester-By-The-Sea, Mass.) finished third in a 6:36.52.

“That was the goal coming in – to win. It took a great race and luckily, we got that today,” said Ochal, who finished seventh in the event last year with Anderson at the 2010 World Rowing Championships.

Ochal said there has been no decision made yet about racing in Europe. “I’ll do whatever [head men’s coach Tim McLaren] advises us to do. If we go race, we race; if we go back to camp, we go back to camp. We’re trying to find the fastest boat. It will either be the double or quad.”

In the women’s double sculls, the USRowing TC – Princeton duo of Kate Bertko (Oakland, Calif.) and Sarah Trowbridge (Guilford, Conn.) won with a time of 7:11.96. USRowing TC - Princeton’s Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.) and Cambridge Boat Club’s Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.) were second in a time of 7:12.66. In third were USRowing TC – Princeton’s Natalie Dell (Clearville, Pa.) and Stesha Carle (Long Beach, Calif.) in 7:12.92.

“It was a pretty solid race,” said Trowbridge. “We did what we wanted to do, executed well and tried to build on the race that we had yesterday. I think there are areas for improvement, but it was a really tough race. Our competitors are awesome. They’re our teammates and I think everyone really went after it.”

The men’s pair final was next with the USRowing TC – Chula Vista crew of Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.) and Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.) winning in a time of 6:44.56. Cole and Gault took the lead early and held through to the finish.

The USRowing TC – Oklahoma City crew of Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.) and Justin Stangel (Madison, Wis.) finished second in 6:46.15 and USRowing TC – OKC’s Andrew Melander (Mahtiomedi, Minn.) and Ryan Monaghan (Rochester, N.Y.) were third in 6:47.09.

“The race was great,” said Cole. “We had a tough path. There were a lot of good crews here. Those Oklahoma City guys are doing really well. We got out and we just wanted to have a better race than the semi and take control.”

In the women’s pair, USRowing TC – Princeton crews had all six entries with the pair of Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y.) and Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.) winning in a time of 7:17.48.

In second were Erin Carfo (Modesto, Calif.) and Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in 7:19.38 and in third were Esther Lofgren (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Mara Allen (San Francisco, Calif.) in 7:22.47.

“It was a great race,” said Musnicki. “We knew it was going to be close the whole time. We just executed our race plan. It was just a solid push through the entire piece and it was close right down to the end. We like to keep things exciting.”

The final two events were the lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls.

In the lightweight men’s final, GMS Rowing Center’s Brian de Regt (Rowayton, Conn.) and Jon Winter (New Haven, Conn.) led the entire race and finished in a time of 6:38.77. Undine Barge Club’s Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Vesper’s Matt Bokermann (Rockford, Ill.) was second in 6:43.89.

USRowing Training Center – Oklahoma City’s Bob Duff (Huntington Valley, Pa.) and Vesper’s John Kapteyn (Atlanta, Ga.) finished third in 6:45.54.

“It was a good race,” said de Regt. “We got off the line the way we wanted to and we were able to extend our lead at the very end according to plan.”

In the lightweight women’s final, University of California – Berkley Women’s Alumni’s Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) and University of Wisconsin’s Kristin Hedstrom (Concord, Mass.) won with a time of 7:14.12.

USRowing TC – OKC’s Abby Broughton (Tetonia, Idaho) and Ursula Grobler (Pretoria, South Africa) were second in 7:16.14. USRowing TC – OKC’s Hillary Saeger (Dedham, Mass.) and Nicole Dinion (Falls Church, Va.) followed in third with a time of 7:20.98.

“The plan from here is to go overseas,” said Hedstrom. “We’re trying to figure out how many [world cups] we want to do. We’re just very excited and we’re proud to represent the U.S.”

For full race results, visit www.usrowing.org.

Did you miss the live stream broadcast of finals? Following the event, Saturday’s A and B finals will be available to download at http://www.usrowing.org/Multimedia/VideoDownloads.aspx. Click the “Buy Now” link next to the race of your choice to be directed to payment and download information, powered by Amazon.

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