07 Dec 2011
U.S. Men's Eight Defeats Canada in Windermere Challenge Cup
Copy provided by USRowing
The U.S. men's eight of coxswain Pete Cipollone (Ardmore, Pa.), stroke Jon Watling (Greenwich, Conn.), Bryan Volpenhein (Cincinnati, Ohio), Luke McGee (Brant Lake, N.Y.), Mike Wherley (Sun Prairie, Wis.), Wolf Moser (Moultonboro, N.H.), Joseph Hansen (Bakersfield, Calif.), Jason Read (Ringoes, N.J.), and Ryan Torgerson (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) clocked a 5:48.83 to defeat Canada by 2.69 seconds Saturday at the Windermere Challenge Cup in Seattle on 3 May.
The U.S. crew, which included seven members of last year's world championships' bronze medal men's eight, took the lead near the halfway point of the race and came home with a seven-seat victory over the defending world champions.
?When you get the opportunity to race against the defending world champions, you really just want to come with your best performance,? said Cipollone.
?Either seven or eight of the nine guys had raced here before, so everybody knew what it was going to be like,? Cipollone continued. ?The only thing we weren't prepared for was that this seemed like a pro-USA crowd. So when we came under that bridge, man it was loud. It was louder than I've ever heard, so it was fantastic.?
In total, the crew U.S. crew had more than 40 National Team appearances and 18 world championships' medals between them. The Canadian crew included seven members of last year's world champion men's eight — Jeff Powell, Joe Stankevicius, Andrew Hoskins, Adam Kreek, Kevin Light, Kyle Hamilton and Ben Rutledge. Rounding out the lineup are Cam Baerg and David Calder.
Saturday marked the 17th running of the Windermere Cup Regatta, hosted by the University of Washington and Windermere Real Estate.
For more info visit the US Rowing Website www.usrowing.org.