Women’s Eight, Men’s Four Advance to Olympic Finals on Saturday in Tokyo

The three-time defending Olympic champion women's eight won its heat to advance to Friday's final, while the men's four finished second in its heat to advance to Wednesday's final, highlighting Saturday's racing at the Sea Forest Waterway at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
 
In the final race of the day, the U.S. women's

eight of coxswain Katelin Guregian (Detroit, Mich./University of Washington), Kristine O'Brien (Massapequa Park, N.Y./University of Virginia), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y./Ithaca College), Regina Salmons (Methuen, Mass./University of Pennsylvania), Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y./Harvard University), Brooke Mooney (Keene Valley, N.Y./University of Washington), Gia Doonan (Rochester, Mass./University of Texas), Charlotte Buck (Nyack, N.Y./Columbia University), and Jessica Thoennes (Highlands Ranch, Colo./University of Washington) held off a late charge by Romania to win their heat and advance directly to the finals. Romania took the early lead, ahead of Australia and the U.S., but the American boat was able to use its strong, base rhythm to take a slight lead at the midway point and then extend to a two-second advantage during the third 500 meters.
 
"It wasn't nerve-wracking at all," said Mooney of being down off the line to Romania. "We race each other so many times, and you never know where you're going to be off the start line, especially racing crews for the first time in two years. No one knows anyone's speed, and we just trusted ourselves and trusted our rhythm. Once we (find) that rhythm, we just go to work and see what we can do."
 
Romania made a late charge over the final 250 meters, but the U.S. held on to win by 1.26 seconds. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:08.69, with Romania finishing in a 6:09.95. New Zealand won the other heat in a 6:07.65 to also advance to the final.
 
"Go back and find more speed," Musnicki said about preparations for the final. "You go out there and take advantage of every stroke, every opportunity to get a little bit better, to find a little more speed."
 
The men's four crew of Clark Dean (Sarasota, Fla./Harvard University), Michael Grady (Pittsburgh, Pa./Cornell University), Anders Weiss (Barrington, R.I./Brown University) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Mass./Harvard University) finished second to Australia in the first of two heats, advancing to Wednesday's final.
 
"I think we came well prepared for the heat, for the wind, for the water, and then of knowing the opponent – knowing the fingerprint of each of the other boats, what we had to do to get that top-two spot, which was obviously the goal, and we got it," Dean said. "We were ready for anything. I think that is one thing we are good at – changing speeds, being internal."
 
Australia and the U.S. took command of the top two positions in the first 500 meters, looking to secure the qualification spots early in the race. The two boats continued to pull away from the rest of the field through the middle 1,000 meters. During the third quarter of the race, the U.S. cut into the Australians' lead slightly, but Australia met the challenge and rowed to a three-second victory. Australia finished with a time of 5:54.27, with the U.S taking second in a 5:57.27.
 
"It's just fun," Grady said. "You've got to remember that this is just pure racing at its finest. There's not many people here, so it's just like the true nature of racing – six crews across, going against each other. It's a whole lot of fun, and you just have to remember that's why we are here. We want to race."
 
The men's eight of coxswain Julian Venonsky (Malvern, Pa./University of California, Berkeley), Liam Corrigan (Old Lyme, Conn./Harvard University), Conor Harrity (Weston, Mass./Harvard University), Nick Mead (Strafford, Pa./Princeton University), Alexander Richards (Watertown, Mass./Harvard University), Austin Hack (Old Lyme, Conn./Stanford University), Alex Miklasevich (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brown University), Justin Best (Kennett Square, Pa./Drexel University), and Ben Davison (Inverness, Fla./University of Washington) finished second to Germany in the first of two heats, just missing a spot in the final. The U.S. held a slight advantage on the German crews at the 500-meter mark before extending the lead to a couple of seats at the halfway point. The U.S. continued to lead by about a half-second as the crews came into the final quarter of the race. However, Germany was able to pull ahead in the final 300 meters to secure the victory. Germany finished with a time of 5:28.95, with the U.S. finishing in a 5:30.57.
 
"I thought it was a strong piece," Hack said. "We have a pretty young lineup, so I think to run neck-and-neck with the best in the world from the last world championships for almost all that race was a pretty impressive effort. I think we're looking to just sharpen up that last few percent for the next piece."
 
The Americans will take on New Zealand, Great Britain, Romania and Australia in the repechage on Wednesday.
 
"This was the first time we've (raced) with other boats around us, (so our plan) was just to race our race, stay internal and see where we are in the field," Venonsky said. "We don't hold back. We love to race, so we go out there to race. It was a great piece, and we're excited to go out there and do it again on Wednesday."
 
The lightweight women's double sculls duo of Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) and Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) missed a spot in the semifinals by less than a second, finishing third in the first of three heats. Sechser and Reckford got off the line in fourth position, sitting a little over a second back of the leading Italian crew. The U.S. moved into third place in the second 500 meters and continued to press Italy and France into the final 250 meters. At the line, the French boat pulled its bow-ball ahead to earn the victory, with Italy holding off the U.S. to claim the second qualifying spot. France won the race in a 7:03.47, with Italy finishing in a 7:04.66. The U.S. clocked a 7:05.30 and will now take on Argentina, Belarus, Japan, Tunisia and Indonesia in the first of two repechages.
 
"It was an awesome race to be in," Reckford said. "I think that is one of the reasons that the lightweight boats are so exciting is because you trade bow-balls all the time and you'll get two, three, four boats across the line within two seconds of each other … Being able to trade seats, being able to respond, I think that was one of the most exciting parts of the race for me in the boat was looking across, realizing we were down, calling a move and (then) moving. When the boat responds like that, it's really exciting and really a good sign."
 
In the women's pair, the U.S. duo of Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis./University of Washington) and Tracy Eisser (Fair Lawn, N.J./Cornell University) finished fourth in their heat and now will race in a repechage tomorrow. With the top three to advance to the semifinals, Kalmoe and Eisser dropped to fifth off the start and were unable to get back into contact with the leading crews. Canada took the lead in the first 500 meters over Romania and was able to hold the top spot the entire way down the course, finishing with a time of 7:18.34. Romania finished second in a 7:20.36, with Italy in third. The U.S. clocked a 7:26.95 and will take on Ireland, China and Greece in the repechage.
 
The women's four of Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich./Stanford University), Kendall Chase (Evergreen, Colo./University of California, Berkeley), Claire Collins (McLean, Va./Princeton University) and Madeleine Wanamaker (Neenah, Wis./University of Wisconsin) also finished fourth in their heat and will race in tomorrow's repechages. With the top two to advance to the final, Australia held off Ireland to win the race by 0.23 seconds. Australia finished with a time of 6:28.76, with Ireland crossing in a 6:28.99. Romania finished third. The U.S. clocked a 6:43.80 and will take on Poland, Great Britain, Canada, Romania and Denmark in tomorrow's repechage.
 
The U.S. will have three additional crews racing on Sunday.
 
In the women's single sculls, two-time Olympian Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley) will be racing in a quarterfinal against scullers from Hong Kong, Serbia, Ireland, China and Paraguay. Kohler advanced to Sunday's quarterfinals thanks to a win in her heat on Friday. The top three finishers in each quarterfinal will move on to the semifinals.
 
In the women's double sculls, three-time Olympian Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass/Princeton University) and Kristi Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) moved on to Sunday's semifinals after finishing second in their heat. The duo will take on France, Canada, The Netherlands, Australia and Germany in the second of two semifinals. The top three finishers will advance to the final.
 
The women's quadruple sculls crew of Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich./University of Michigan), Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La./University of Virginia), Alie Rusher (West Bend, Wis./Stanford University), and Cicely Madden (Weston, Mass./Brown University) finished fifth in their heat and now will race in Sunday's repechage against Australia, Italy, Great Britain, New Zealand and France. The top two finishers will move on to the race for the medals.
 
Sunday's racing starts at 9:00 a.m. local time (8:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday). NBC's broadcast schedule and links to NBC's live streaming are available on USRowing's Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 coverage page.
 
Click here for the full schedule on the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 website, and click here for USRowing's Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 coverage page for athlete bios, articles, photos and more.

Click here for flash quotes from today's racing.