Pocock’s Johnson qualifies for U.S. Under-23 Team

PRINCETON, N.J., July 6, 2006 – Heather Johnson of Seattle’s Pocock Rowing Center qualified for the United States Under 23 Rowing Team with a win in the lightweight women’s single sculls, Thursday, at the 2006 USRowing Under 23 Team Trials on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J.

Johnson, of Portland, Ore., clocked an 8:05.5 to win the 2,000 meter time-trial by nearly seven seconds and pass the U.S. time standard necessary for qualification by three seconds. She was among four U.S. crews to win at trials and earn a trip to the World Rowing Under 23 Championships July 20 – 23 in Hazewinkel, Belgium.

Other U.S. qualifiers include Stesha Carle (Long Beach, Calif.) and Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich.) in the women’s pair, Saugatuck Rowing Club’s lightweight men’s quadruple sculls quartet of Richard Klein (Westport, Conn.), Daniel Feldman (Miami, Fla.), Jon Winter (New Haven, Conn.), and Brian de Regt (Rowayton, Conn.), and the Princeton Training Center men’s four with coxswain of coxswain Chase Phillips (Woodbridge, Va.), Kevin Baum (Potomac, Md.), Max Vice-Reshel (Milwaukee, Wis.), Will Miller (Duxbury, Mass.), and Vince McCall (Newtown Square, Pa.).

The U.S. will also send a men’s and women’s eight-oared crew, lightweight men’s four and men’s quadruple sculls to the annual FISA competition that is expected to draw some 600 up-and-coming athletes and Olympic hopefuls from 40 countries around the world. James Dietz II (Amherst, Mass.) has already qualified for the U.S. team in the men’s single sculls.

About the George Pocock Rowing Foundation
The George Pocock Rowing Foundation is a non-profit organization that serves as a community resource for the support and advancement of the sport of rowing in the Northwest. The Foundation is active in helping develop new rowing programs, providing rowing opportunities for at-risk children and adults, and sponsoring men and women training for the U.S. National Rowing Team.