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2012 Olympic Trials Underway on Mercer Lake

June 12, 2012

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – The path to the 2012 Olympic Games in London became slightly easier for the crews that won their first races on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. this morning in the trials for the last of the qualified small boats.

Four crews from the men’s pair heats moved directly to tomorrow morning’s semifinals, while the remaining 10 crews will race again this evening in the repechage, or second chance races, that will determine which of the crews will also advance.

The winners of the men’s pair and the women’s pair and the men’s single sculls, which are also being contested this week, will earn an automatic birth to the team that will represent the United States in rowing this summer pending final approval from the United States Olympic Committee.
 Advancing out of the heats were USRowing Training Center crews Michael Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) and Ty Otto (Seattle, Wash.) and Jason Read (Ringoes, N.J.) and Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.). Also advancing was the USRowing Training Center – Oklahoma City entry of Silas Stafford (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.) and the California Rowing Club crew of Ryan Monaghan (Pittsford, N.Y.), Deaglan McEachern (Portsmouth, N.H.).

Posting the fastest time of the 14 crews with a finish of 6:55.010 were Gennaro and Otto, who won gold in both the pair and the eight in the 2011Pan American Games last summer.

Rowing in the women’s pair race for lanes were USRowing Training Center crews of Jamie Redman (Spokane, Wash.) and Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Sara Hendershot (West Simsbury, Conn.) and Sarah Zelenka (Itasca, Ill.).

Redman and Polk, both five-time U.S. national team members who won gold and set a world best time in the heat of the women’s eight at the 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup in Lucerne last month, finished first over Hendershot and Zelenka, who were members of the four that won gold at the 2011 World Rowing Championships.

Also rowing in a race for lanes were four scullers entered in the men’s single including Beijing Olympian Ken Jurkowski (New Fairfield, Conn.), California Rowing Club’s Mike Sivigny (Somersworth, N.H.), All-American Rowing Camp’s Jim Dietz, II (Amherst, Mass.) and Seattle Rowing Center’s Jon Greer (Chester, N.H.).

Jurkowski, who qualified the boat at the 2011 World Rowing Championships last fall, won the event at National Selection Regatta #1 in March, but then missed out on a top-four finish at either of the first two 2012 World Rowing Cup stops – placement that would have qualified him for London. . Jurkowski finished with the best time in 7:32.286.

In afternoon repechage racing, four crews advanced to the morning semifinals including California Rowing Club crews Paul Marcy and Evan Cassidy; Andrew Melander and Derek Johnson; Brandon Shald and Brad Bertoldo, and the University of Wisconsin/Stanford entry of Austin Hack, (Old Lyme, Conn.) and Dariush Aghai (Skokie, Ill.).

Tuesday, June 12 Results
2012 Olympic Trials - Rowing
Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.

Men's Pair Heat 1: 1. USRTC (Gennaro, Otto), 6:55.010; 2. CRC (Shald, Bertoldo), 6:57.212; 3. Craftsbury (Hoffstot, Holak), 7:16.612

Men's Pair Heat 2: 1. USTC (Guregian, Read), 7:07.230; 2. CRC (Marcy, Cassidy), 7:15.685; 3. CRC (Getsinger, Quie), 7:20.818

Men's Pair Heat 3: 1. CRC (McEachern, Monaghan), 7:10.100; 2. CRC (Melander, Johnson), 7:12.779; 3. USTC - OKC (Gallagher, Stangel), 7:17.725; 4. Craftsbury (Henson, Lafferty), 7:24.495

Men's Pair Heat 4: 1. USTC - OKC (Stafford, Peszek), 6:58.356; 2. Wisconsin/Stanford (Hack, Aghai), 7:09.460; 3. USTC/NYAC (Blomquist, Koven), 7:20.558; 4. Pocock RC (Nichols, Sullivan), 7:28.846

Women's Pair Race for Lanes: 1. USTC (Amanda Polk, Jamie Redman), 7:44.233; 2. USTC (Sarah Zelenka, Sara Hendershot), 7:46.530

Men's Single Race for Lanes: 1. Unaffiliated (Ken Jurkowski), 7:32.286; 2. CRC (Michael Sivigny), 7:39.687; 3. Seattle Rowing Center (Jonathan Greer), 7:43.365; 4. All-American Rowing Camp, LLC (James Dietz), 7:51.088

Results Tuesday Evening

Racing

Men's Pair Repechage 1: 1. CRC (Marcy, Cassidy), 7:04.734; 2. Craftsbury (Hoffstot, Holak), 7:07.376; 3. Craftsbury (Henson, Lafferty), 7:11.418



Men's Pair Repechage 2: 1. CRC (Melander, Johnson), 7:05.515; 2. Pocock (Nichols, Sullivan), 7:13.721; 3. CRC (Getsinger, Quie), 7:17.556



Men's Pair Repechage 3: 1. University of Wisconsin/Stanford (Hack, Aghai), 7:04.249; 2. USRowing Training Center - OKC (Gallagher, Stangel), 7:09.247



Men's Pair Repechage 4: 1. CRC (Shald, Bertoldo), 6:57.274; 2. USTC/NYAC (Blomquist, Koven), 7:01.756

A full schedule and results will be available at www.usrowing.org.



The finals of the 2012 Olympic Trials – Rowing will air on June 23 from 6-7:30 p.m. EDT on NBC Sports Network. A record 67.5 hours of event coverage – 43 on NBC Sports Network and 24.5 on NBC – will feature nine sports in addition to rowing – including live primetime coverage of trials for diving, swimming, gymnastics and track & field, as well as events for water polo and field hockey.

Members of the media interested in obtaining Olympic Trials – Rowing credentials should contact Allison Frederick, USRowing Communications Manager at Allison@usrowing.org or (609) 751-0710.



About USRowing


USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing’s official suppliers include Boathouse Sports, Vespoli, WinTech, Filippi, Croker Oars, Rudy Project, Concept2, Nielsen Kellerman, PowerHTV and Ludus Tours. USRowing also receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners ANXeBusiness Corp, Voxer, EZ Dock, EMCVenues, The Perfect SNAQUE and INDi. For more information, visit www.usrowing.org. USRowing has created The Row to London to engage sponsors leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, with proceeds going to help ensure the U.S. team’s success. Opportunities also exist to partner with America Rows – supporting diversity initiatives and adaptive programs. For more information, please contact Beth Kohl at beth@usrowing.org.

Ed Moran - Photo by Monica Worsley