GRP Contests Heats and Repechage Races at Olympic Trials II
Day two of racing on Mercer Lake featured heat and repechage racing for GRP rowers. The Green team entered boats in the Women’s 2x and Men’s 4x boat classes.
The Women’s 2x boat class kicked off the action at 8:00am local time. The GRP had four boats involved in the competition. Jenifer Forbes produced a composite craft with US Rowing Training Center athlete Sophia Vitas. Emily Dellman teamed up with Christine Pretto of Vesper Boat club to create a GRP composite. Grace Joyce and Erin Boxberger united for an all GRP double. Bridget Schodorf and Alexandra Spaulding formed another all Craftsbury boat.
The winning boat from each heat advanced directly to Wednesday’s Semifinals, with the rest heading to repechage racing.
Forbes/Vitas won Heat 1 in 7:25.54 and advanced directly to the Semifinals. Pretto/Dellman finished second in 7:38.7. Schodorf/Spaulding placed 4th in Heat 2 in 7:54.31. Boxberger/Joyce took 3rd in Heat 4 in a time of 7:41.98.
Due to scheduling and weather constraints the Women’s 2x Repechages took place in the afternoon. All three GRP boats were sorted into Repechage 4. Pretto/Dellman proved to be the quickest and punched their ticket to the Semifinals in 7:09.34. Boxberger/Joyce followed in 7:10.48 and Schodorf/Spaulding wrapped up the race in 7:22. This all GRP race was the fastest Repechage of the day.
The GRP entered two boats in the Men’s 4x. The first boat is a composite featuring Matt O’Leary, GRP rower Jacob Plihal, Craftsbury athlete Lucas Bellows, and Travis Taaffe. The second GRP boat is made up of GRP rowers Luke Rein, Mark Couwenhoven, Webster Thompson and Nate Phelps.
The GRP Composite boat placed second in Heat 1 in 6:18.89, behind the winning US Rowing Training Center boat which completed the course in 6:13.36.
In Heat 2, the GRP boat stroked by Luke Rein also placed second in 6:23.77 behind the 6:11 Penn AC Composite quad.
Both GRP boats will race in a Repechage on Wednesday for a place in the Final.
Wednesday’s racing starts at 8:00am EST.
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