Kevin Meador Named Team USA Men’s Single

Last Updated: 14.Aug.2019

Last week GRP rower, Kevin Meador, traveled down to Princeton, NJ to compete in the fifth and final USRowing Trials Regatta. U23 sculler, James Wright and GRP Alum Tom Graves also represented the Cedar Leaf at the regatta and raced under the GRP name. The purpose of the regatta was to name the Men’s Single Sculler and Men’s Pair that were to represent the United States at this month’s World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. 

Racing started with a time trial on Monday morning where only the top 11 advanced  onto the heats. Tom, and Kevin posted the top two times respectively and James qualified with a sixth place time.  

After a quick turnaround, the field returned to Mercer Lake that afternoon to race the Heats. As a trials event, only the winners of the Heats earned the right to advance directly to the Semi-final which gave them the advantage of half a day's rest rather than having to race in the Repechage the next morning. With that said, Kevin went on to win his heat, as Tom and James took 3rd and 4th in their respective heats. Tom and James went on to win their Repechages on Tuesday morning and moved onto the afternoon Semifinals. 

Eight scullers returned to the course for Tuesday afternoon’s semi-finals. Kevin won his semi-final and advanced on to the Final. Tom and James took third and fourth in the same semi-final and were eliminated from the regatta. 

The four-boat final was held on Wednesday morning. The final was a tight one, with less than seven seconds spanning between the first finisher and the fourth. Kevin won the race with a one-second margin over the second place sculler and earned his right to declare as the United State’s 1x! 

Kevin accepted his bid and will go on to race at the World Championship’s in Linz, Austria, Aug 25th-Sept 1st! He will continue to train on Hosmer in the meantime and will head to Europe with Coach Steve on August 18th. Good luck, Kevin!