Plovdiv Bulgaria is an interesting and exciting place to race. It is hot and arid with the sun blazing down like southern California. Plovdiv is a great historic city with the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. If you decide to take a cab to the course rather than a bus your heart will be pounding and sweating like you had just finished your row, traffic signals seem to be more of a recommendation. The course itself is a gorgeous man-made racecourse surrounded by trees. Unlike almost all FISA courses there is a spectator bridge over the course, which make racing there very exciting, and you get a little extra push from the cheering there.
The US Team had an amazing performance in Plovdiv. With such a large contingent its hard to get into the details, but we will give you a run down with how each of the crews fared.
BLM2x
Austin Velte and Jim Sincavage won the E final of the lightweight men’s double
BLW1x
Helena Randle won the C final of the light weight women’s single.
BLM1x
Hector Formoso-Murias came in second in the C final of the lightweight men’s single.
BW2x
Mary Carmack and Megan Goodman won the C final of the woman’s double
BM2x
Ned Benning and Taylor Beach placed fourth in the C final of the men’s double.
BLW2x
Jennifer Sager and Kathryn Oram came in second in the C final of the women’s lightweight double.
BLW4x
Bridget Konttinen, Gabriela Purman, Olivia Jamrog, and Alexandra Coultrup ended up second in the B final in the women’s lightweight quad.
BLM4x
Michael Senf, Corey Brown, Andrew Kershaw, and Reid Cucci placed second in the B final of the lightweight men’s quad.
BW4-
Women’s 4- win A Final Sarah Dougherty, Lizzy Youngling, Mia Croonquist, and Kendall Chase won gold in the women’s four.
BM4+
Rielly Milne, Eric Benca, Oscar Golberg, William Spencer, and Samuel Pettet placed in sixth in the A final.
BLM2-
Alexander Bonorris and Jordan Volpe-Tewsbury finished fourth in the A final.
BW2-
Georgia Ratcliff and Jessica Eiffert won gold in the women’s pair.
BW4x
Kendall Brewer, Meghan Wheeler, Erin Briggs, and Sam Casto end in fourth in the A final of the women’s quad
BM4-
Kyle Flagg, Tim Tracey, Julian Hagberg, and John Carroll rowed the men’s four without to a fourth place finish in the A final.
BM2-
Kevin Bielawski and Stuart Maeder finished fifth in the B final.
BLM4-
Ian Klein, Samuel Ward, Jacob Ford, and Marco Bustamante Nadeau placed sixth in the lightweight men’s four.
BM1x
Benjamin Davison won the B final of the men’s single.
BW1x
Mary Ann McNulty placed fourth in the B final.
BW8+
Women’s 8+ third A final Colette Lucas-Conwell, Kendall Chase, Georgia Ratcliff, Sarah Dougherty, Lizzy Youngling, Mia Croonquist, Alex Spaulding, Erin Reelick, and Jessica Eiffert won a bronze medal in the women’s eight.
BM8+
Men’s 8+ second A final Louis Lombardi, Dara Alizadeh, Hunter Leeming, Justin Murphy, Max Meyer Bosse, Gregory Davis, Jordan Vanderstoep, Kaess Smit, and Thomas Meeks won a silver medal in the men’s eight.
We applaud the great performances from all the US crews; we look forward to seeing what these athletes do in the future.