Last Updated: 01.May.2014

Spring racing began this past weekend for the rowing contingent of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project at the first National Selection Regatta in New Jersey. This race marks the start of the 2014 campaign for the World Championships in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. One more year into the Olympic cycle means that the level of competition continues to rise as new talent arrives to test their speed against Olympians and national team members of previous years. Over 120 boats were entered in the regatta, each one filled with national team or Olympic hopefuls. The GRP was ready to race at Mercer after a six-week training camp at Clemson University where the group was able to enjoy miles of water and warm temperatures as well as two buoyed 2000-meter race courses. Craftsbury had a busy week of racing with four men’s heavyweight singles, nine women’s open singles, 2 lightweight singles and a lightweight men’s pair ready to go.

Racing got off to a rocky start with extremely high winds closing the course throughout the week. Thursday morning’s time trial saw all the heavyweight singles and the men’s lightweight pair race, but as soon as the last lightweight pair crossed the line the lightweight single time trial was cancelled due to unrowable conditions. The results of the time trial became even more heavily weighted with the loss of an afternoon of heats, meaning that the top 12 singles in the heavyweight division would advance to the A/B semifinals with the rest going to C, D, and E finals. Craftsbury had two women advance from the open single, with Emily Driessigacker in 6th place and Elizabeth Sonshine taking the last spot in 12th place. On the men’s side the GRP took four out of the top five spots, with John Graves posting the fastest time ahead of Peter Graves in 3rd place, Ben Dann in 4th and Steve Whelpley in 5th. The lightweight pair of Phil Grisdela and Phil Henson was the last boat to row the course before racing was called and came in third place. The lightweight singles lost a full day of racing, forcing them to go directly to the finals off of the time trial. Both Craftsbury entries made the A final, with Josh Konieczny coming in first place in the time trial and Kyle Lafferty in 5th. Sarah Keller in the women’s lightweight single came in 15th and would win the C final on Saturday.

Friday brought the semis and lower finals for the open singles as well as the final for the lightweight pair. John Graves unfortunately came down with a stomach illness that would keep him out of racing after winning the time trial, but his brother Peter represented the GRP by winning the first semifinal. The second semifinal had two Olympians and three GRP rowers, with Steve Whelpley holding off two-time Olympic single sculler Ken Jurkowski to win and Ben Dann just missing the A final in fourth place. Both Elizabeth Sonshine and Emily Driessigacker faced similarly tough competition in their semifinals and would race each other in the B final. Phil Grisdela and Phil Henson came in fourth in their final behind three boats from the USRowing training center in Oklahoma City.  The Craftsbury women would finish out the racing with Liz Donald in 15th place, Maggie Fellows in 16th, Keziah Beall in 17th, Laura Larsen-Strecker in 19th, Jamie Chapman in 20th and Rebecca Donald in 24th.

Sarah Keller started off the Saturday racing bright and early with a win in the C final for 13th place overall while Elizabeth Sonshine and Emily Driessigacker placed 4th and 5th in the B final for 10th and 11th place, respectively. Ben Dann had a strong second place finish in the B final for 8th place overall as well. Craftsbury had four boats in the A finals on Saturday, with Josh Konieczny taking home an excruciatingly close second place finish, ahead of Kyle Lafferty in 5th place. Steve Whelpley would post the top result for the GRP at the regatta, holding off a strong charge from Jurkowski to win the men’s open single with Peter Graves in 5th place.

As the squad gets back to Craftsbury where the lake cleared thanks to some Shackleton-esqe ice breaking, the training turns to the second NSR from May 14th-17th. The men’s and women’s doubles will be the focus here, with an opportunity for the winners to compete at the World Cups to try and secure a spot for the 2014 World Championship team. After winning the first NSR, Steve Whelpley has the option to race at the World Cup circuit as the men’s single sculler for the US. You can follow his progress, as well as all the rest of the GRP goings-on via the GRP website, Facebook page and Twitter feed for more news. Also a big thank you to new team sponsor JL Racing for outfitting the whole team with racing uniforms in time for this regatta! We're excited to have a partner of JL's stature supporting our efforts.