Erin Knox from Everett Rowing Association just finished her junior year in high school. The two-time junior national team member will be racing in the junior women’s eight at the 2005 FISA Junior World Championships August 3-6 in Brandenburg , Germany . Last year, Knox raced in the junior women’s four. USRowing caught up with Knox at the USRowing National Championships, just two days before the team was to leave for Germany .

As a two-time junior national team member, talk a little about the differences from last year’s selection camp to this year’s camp.

For me, it was a lot different because we had so many returnees. Last year, we only had one girl returning from the boats that raced in Athens . This year, there were a lot of people that had rowed together and had racing experiences together. I would say that was the biggest difference. Having people that you already knew makes the overall camp experience better, but also when you are in the boat together, you have had experience rowing together.

How important will that experience be heading into this year’s junior world championships?

I think it is going to be huge. Another difference between the camps was the schedule. Last year, we didn’t race anywhere before worlds, so having raced together last year in different combinations and racing here at nationals and down in Princeton (last week) before we (leave for Germany) is going to be a huge help.

Talk a little about the Olympic events regatta last week in Princeton and getting to race against the senior eights and under 23s.

It was good. Going into it, we were told, basically, if everything goes well, you’re supposed to lose. It was still a good racing experience. I think people learned a lot. You go out there and you’re racing with people who are continuing on at the next level. It’s really cool to be able to race against them.

Talk about having the opportunity to race at this week’s national championships and getting a chance to work the kinks out and test your speed before heading into junior worlds.

The conditions changed a lot between heats and finals and between events. It really gave us a time to go out there, throw our race plan out and see what happened. Ultimately, we were racing ourselves and just racing that plan and seeing how it worked out. We learned a lot, some lessons that we can take over to Germany . Potentially, (the race in Germany ) could be a final-only situation, so we’re getting those (kinks) out before the big race.

You will be a senior next year. What has the recruiting process been like for you so far?

It’s exciting. There are so many options out there, so many things to take into consideration. It’s just really exciting. I’m really looking forward to this August and having time to really talk with people, sort out my options and figure out what I want to do with that.