Last Updated: 25.Apr.2016

The Green Racing Project men’s double of William Cowles (Farmington, Connecticut) and Steve Whelpley (Mequon, Wisconsin) finished the long week for Craftsbury winning their event at Olympic Trials in Sarasota, Florida. See results here.

The two won Sunday’s final handily, posting a time of 6:38.83 over crews from Vesper, Los Angeles and Community Rowing. This victory provides Cowles and Whelpley the opportunity to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Lucerne, Switzerland, where they will have to place top two among crews from around the world. The Olympics take place later this summer.

Two other Craftsbury entries competed in Sunday’s finals. The women’s double of Liz Vogt (Trout Lake, Washington) and Jamie Chapman (Traverse City, Michigan) made the final after winning their repechage on Saturday. They ultimately finished fourth in the final, behind crews from New York Athletic Club/Oklahoma City Training Center, Vesper and Riverside.

After training in California for the Fall and Winter, Tom Graves, racing as Craftsbury, lost a close men’s single final. Coming from behind on the field, Graves sprinted in an attempt to catch the leader and eventual winner Ken Jurkowski. Graves came just over one second short from winning the event.

The other Craftsbury scullers raced hard through the week in the highly subscribed men’s and women’s singles. Unfortunately they came up short of Sunday’s finals. Hugh McAdam (Hollis, New Hampshire), Erik Frid (Madbury, New Hampshire) and Maddie Lips (Parker, Colorado) all placed third in their respective semifinals, one place out of the finals. Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Massachusetts) raced through Friday’s repechages, but was unable to make the semifinal.

As an additional note, former GRP rower Josh Konieczny won the men’s lightweight double, racing at Cambridge Boat Club. With this trials win, Konieczny and his doubles partner Andrew Campbell earn a ticket to the Olympics.

Moving forward, the efforts of the GRP are directed towards the men’s quad and double competing at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne. The men's quad of Ben Davison (Durham, England), Ben Dann (Pound Ridge, New York), John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) earned their opportunity to travel to Switzerland earlier in the week, winning the quad final on Tuesday.

Further on the horizon is the potential Olympic Trials II where the GRP pair of Parker Washburn (Andover, Massachusetts) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Massachusetts) might get the chance to race the men’s pair for a spot in Olympics.