Pocock’s Meyer wins gold and silver at U.S. Nationals

INDIANAPOLIS, July 22, 2006 – Holy Names Academy junior Lindsay Meyer won gold and silver medals for Seattle's Pocock Rowing Center on Saturday at the 135th running of the USRowing National Championships. Meyer’s national title in the women’s intermediate single sculls was among three golds, two silvers and a bronze won by Pocock crews leading a 13-medal performance by area rowing clubs on the first day of finals on Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis.

Redmond’s Sammamish Rowing Association won gold, silver and bronze in its junior events, while the Northwest Development Camp at Seattle’s Pocock Rowing Center captured two silvers and the University of Washington captured a silver and a bronze at the national competition which concludes on Sunday.

Racing in the second of her two singles events on Saturday, the 17-year-old Meyer started fourth among six crews in the women’s intermediate singles. By the half-way mark of the 2,000 meter race, Meyer had worked back into contention to take an open-water lead on the field. Meyer finished in 7:59.52, just over two seconds ahead of Hannah Brewster of the UMass Development Camp. Brewster clocked an 8:01.62 for the silver followed by Meg Gaab of Pittsburgh’s Steel City Rowing Club.

“The competition was very difficult,” said Meyer who will represent the U.S. in the women’s single sculls at this summer’s world junior championships in Amsterdam. “These are very good athletes. Hannah made a couple of moves on me, but I stayed calm and remembered to use my legs.”

Earlier in the day in the women’s elite single sculls, Meyer sprinted through Potomac Boat’s Club’s Margaret Matia in the final 250 meters to capture silver in the event. Her time of 7:52.37 was just 1.59 seconds shy of the gold medal time put up by Shannon Kaplan of Philadelphia’s Undine Barge Club. Kaplan clocked a 7:50:78 for the win while Matia hung-on for the bronze.

“The last ten strokes were the defining point,” said Meyer. It’s an amazing feeling - a huge motivator - to know that a 17-year-old can compete against women that have been at this for many more years,” said Meyer who will face both Kaplan and Matia in Sunday’s final of the women’s senior single sculls. “I want to go out there and show them that I have the ability to represent the United States well when I go to Amsterdam.”

In other medal winning nationals action for Seattle crews, Pocock’s Liz Patterson and Libby Peters outrowed New York Athletic Club’s Christina Richards and Fiona Augar by over eight seconds to capture the gold in the women’s elite lightweight double sculls. In the two boat final, Patterson and Peters clocked a 7:30.28 for the win followed by NYAC in 7:38.94.

In the women’s intermediate lightweight double sculls, Pocock’s Rachel Sung and Jill Angle outlasted Pocock team-mates Jill Austin and Beth Danhauer by just over three seconds for the club’s third gold medal of the day. Sung and Angle clocked a 7:19.10 for the win followed by Austin and Danhauer’s 7:22.92. UMass Development Camp’s Michela Musto and Lindsey Hochman took the bronze.

Pocock’s Michelle Hall won a bronze in the women’s senior lightweight single sculls, while Kim Armstrong and Corianne Bowman of the Northwest Development Camp won silver in both the women’s senior and OER pairs competition.

Other local USRowing national medal winners included University of Washington’s Tyler Davis and Steve Full who brought home the silver in the men’s intermediate pair. The duo fell to gold medal winners Henry Roosevelt and Szysmanski of the USRowing Midwest Development Camp by just under a second. In the men’s elite pairs, Washington’s Dave Worley and Derek Devries won bronze.

In the junior events, Cara Linnenkohl captured the gold and bronze for Redmond’s Sammamish Rowing Association. Linnenkohl, a sophomore at Bear Creek Christian School, outrowed Laura Guth of Pittsburgh’s Quad City Rowing Association by just over three seconds to win gold in the women’s junior B single sculls. Linnenkohl clocked an 8:23.64 for the national title. Linnenkohl later won the bronze in the in the women’s junior A single sculls clocking an 8:24.28. Sammamish rowers Austin Ward and Joe Hayman won a silver in men’s junior B double sculls.

Athletes from six rowing clubs in Seattle, Redmond and Olympia and two clubs in Spokane are among 1,200 competitors representing 84 rowing clubs from 21 U.S. States and the District of Columbia, Canada, Brazil, and Chile that are vying for U.S. titles at the national regatta.

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.