Craftsbury Wins the Quad at Olympic Trials

The Craftsbury Quad: Ben Davison (stroke), Ben Dann (three seat), John Graves (two seat), Peter Graves (bow). Photo: USRowing

Last Updated: 19.Apr.2016

The Green Racing Project kicked of the week of Olympic Trials at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida with a win in the final of the men’s quad. Rowing the course in a time of 6:05.09, the crew of Ben Davison (Durham, England), Ben Dann (Pound Ridge, New York), John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) beat out quads from California Rowing Club and Community Rowing in Boston.

The victory gives the Craftsbury quad the opportunity to represent the United States at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, where they will have to place top two to make the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later this summer.

The first trials victory for Craftsbury in the men’s quad since 2014, this year’s crew took a 3 second lead over second-place California by the 500-meter mark. This lead was expanded to less than 6 seconds by 1500 meters. Craftsbury finished the race nearly 5 seconds up on California and almost 28 seconds up on third-place Community rowing. Conditions were choppy at the start with a cross-headwind down the entire course.

The GRP’s week is just beginning at the Olympic Trials. Eight other athletes from Craftbury will compete in four events for an opportunity to represent the United States at the Olympics or the Final Qualification Regatta. The GRP is entered in the men’s and women’s single and the men’s and women’s double. The women's single and double are already qualified for the Olympics and winners of these events will punch a direct ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games. Racing begins Thursday, with finals on Sunday.

The crews from Craftsbury slated to compete are the men’s singles of Hugh McAdam (Hollis, New Hampshire) and Erik Frid (Madbury, New Hampshire); the women’s singles of Maddie Lips (Parker, Colorado) and Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Massachusetts); the men’s double of Steve Whelpley (Mequon, Wisconsin) and William Cowles (Farmington, Connecticut); and the women’s double of Elizabeth Vogt (Trout Lake, Washington) and Jamie Chapman (Traverse City, Michigan).

Keep track of results throughout the week on USRowing.org.