At the Speed Order: Deep Talent, Competitive Finals

“It’s a good reflection of where we are,” said Josy Verdonkschot, USRowing’s chief high-performance officer. “We see more depth and we see better small-boat skills. I’m pretty pleased, especially because most finals were competitive.”

Men’s pairs racing for California Rowing Club took the top five spots in the A final, with a sixth CRC pair winning the B final. On the women’s side, USRowing Training Center-Princeton pairs took first, second, and fourth through sixth in the A final, with CRC’s Ali Rusher and Megan Musnicki, who qualified the U.S. for the Olympics in the event at last year’s Worlds, third. (Some pairs were actually composite crews. According to Verdonkschot, “in the end we all train together as one team.”)

In both the men’s and women’s pairs, a little over five months ahead of the Olympics, all six A-final crews were within at least 95 percent of the established Competitive Standard Time, the speed at which they might be expected reasonably to win.

“There was almost no wind, flat water, but still, in order to row fast times, you have to be fast,” said Vedonkschot. “In that respect, I’m happy with the results.”

In all, 95 single scullers and 27 pairs competed in the regatta. 

“It’s always a bit tougher to hit a time standard when you’re in a small boat,” said Verdonkschot. “So that’s a good indication. And if you look across the fields, men’s pairs as well as women’s pairs as well as singles, all good, decent speeds. So we can only be happy about that.

“You get what you invest in. So if everybody is aware of the fact that they have to not just pull hard on an erg but also show that they can move small boats, people step up and understand and they focus on the right things.”

Unlike some previous Speed Orders, every competitor raced in a six-boat final, whether they qualified for the quarter finals (singles) or semifinals (pairs) in the opening time trial or went straight to the lower E-through-H finals on Friday, the second day of the regatta. Upper-level finals were held on Saturday, a day earlier than originally scheduled, to accommodate the America Youth Cup regatta, which was previously scheduled for the venue.

“If you look at the general level, people understand the importance now of small boats, they enjoy the training and they enjoy the competition,” observed Verdonkschot. “Everybody who was here, down to D-finals and below, had fun with their racing because it was competitive. It’s great development.”

Besides the CRC and USRowing training centers, clubs— including Cambridge Boat Club, New York Athletic Club, ARION, Whitemarsh, Green Racing Project, and Penn AC— trained athletes who have raced their way into Olympic consideration.

“I’m very encouraged with the overall performance,” said Bill Manning, high-performance head coach at Penn AC and a Rowing News columnist. “The clubs are doing an excellent job of preparing athletes to row for the United States.”

Scullers who have already made National Teams turned in the best performances in the singles. Lightweight sculler Molly Reckford, a Tokyo Olympian in the women’s lightweight double, won the combined open and lightweight-singles time trial Thursday morning and then set the fastest time in the afternoon quarterfinals.

“I don’t know how this is happening,” said Reckford. “There are some damn fast women in this race, and I have no doubt they’ll just get faster over the next couple of days.”

Maggie Fellows, a veteran of the 2022 U.S. quad, proved Reckford right, winning the singles A final ahead of Sophia Vitas, who won bronze in the double at last year’s Worlds. Reckford finished third. Lauren O’Connor, Michelle Sechser, and Teal Cohen completed the A final.

Sorin Koszyk continued his winning streak in the single, finishing first in the men’s-single time trial, his quarterfinal, semifinal, and the A final. Ben Davison, Koszyk’s partner in the double at last year’s Worlds, finished second, with William Legenzowski third, giving CRC the top three spots. Jacob Pihal, Andrew LeRoux, and Michael Knippen rounded out the A final.

Several men and women who raced on last year’s U.S. National Team at Worlds were relegated to C finals and lower, as younger athletes rise in the ranks and competitive standards go up in the Olympic year. This year’s pool of athletes includes 25 women who have gone under 6:45 for 2K on the erg and 33 men under 6:00, a dozen of whom are under 5:50.

The Speed Order helped determine invitations to Olympic selection camp, to be held at Nathan Benderson Park in March. USRowing qualified for two Paralympic and eight Olympic events at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The U.S has spots in six of the seven women’s Olympic events but in only two men’s events. The women’s quad and all but the men’s pair and four, along with three Para boats, will have to earn qualification for Paris at the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta, May 19 to 21 in Lucerne, Switzerland, before Rowing World Cup II. If the crews USRowing sends to Lucerne don’t finish in the top two, the U.S. won’t have an entry in those Olympic events.

Invitations to attend the Olympic selection camp went out after the completion of Speed Orders. Athletes don’t have to attend that camp to represent the U.S. at the Olympics in some events. The women’s single and men’s and women’s pairs will be the winners of Olympic trials. The other seven qualified boats will be picked through selection camp, although Koszyk and Davison will most likely be named the men’s double and train at CRC. But five of the non-qualified boats—all but the men’s eight—will be the winners of Olympic trials, who then have to finish top-two at the final qualifier in Lucerne.

Verdonkschot said team boats—quads, fours, and eights—will be selected from invited athletes at the selection camp, but the athletes have the option to choose their own paths.

“People who decline the invitation and want to go to trials—I don’t mind, as long as we communicate it early, because I would want to have the athletes for the quad camp.”

Similarly for the fours and eights: “Everybody who feels uncomfortable or wants to self-remove and create a pair, they can do that. At the end of the camp, people who are not selected will also be able to prepare for trials in the pairs.”

Based on results at last year’s Worlds, the eight will be the priority sweep boat for the women, with the coxless four selected from the same pool. Both will race in Europe this summer, with the opportunity to fine-tune line-ups between boats, if warranted, since Olympic rules allow changes to qualified boats. 

The four will be the priority sweep boat for men, and the eight, to be selected by USRowing Training Center-Sarasota head coach Casey Galvanek, will try to recreate The Boys in the Boat. Plans call for them to train in Seattle with University of Washington head coach Michael Callahan during the spring before attempting to qualify in late May and, if successful, stay to race the World Cup in Lucerne before returning to the Princeton area to train with the whole Olympic squad before the Games.

U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials take place at Nathan Benderson Park, April 2 to 7. Olympic selection camp begins March 3.

As Verdonkschot said at the completion of the Speed Order, “Now the trouble starts.”