Dartmouth connections abundant throughout coaching ranks and athletes
By: Justin Lafleur
PLOVDIV, Bulgaria — Led by Dartmouth coaches John Graves and Trevor Michelson, the United States won a pair of medals at the World Under 23 Championships, which ended on Sunday in Bulgaria. Graves, former Big Green men's heavyweight assistant and new head women's coach, led the eight to a silver medal while Michelson, head men's lightweight coach at Dartmouth, guided the four to bronze. Multiple Big Green student-athletes also competed in the championships.Coach John Graves
Among the athletes competing were Jacob Hudgins and Julian Thomas who were bow and three seat in the eight, respectively. Sammy Houdaigui was coxswain of the four. The championships followed a nearly month-long U23 Men's Selection Sweep Camp held at the Friends of Dartmouth Boathouse, with Graves serving as lead coach and Michelson as an assistant coach.
"I could talk about how hard this group worked, how receptive they were to feedback, how fun they made the day-in-and-day-out process for us," said Graves. "But what Trevor and I are most proud of is the way both crews rose to the occasion to have their best piece on the all-important day. The medals are nice, but I take a lot more gratification out of the fact that these guys are leaving this experience with the confidence that they can turn the pressure into excitement, and perform their best when it matters most."
In the grand final of the men's eight Sunday morning, the Red, White and Blue posted a time of 5:28.90, less than two seconds behind Great Britain and only 0.09 seconds ahead of Germany for third. In the two seat for Great Britain was Big Green rower Felix Rawlinson. Australia finished fourth with a time of 5:31.49, which featured Dartmouth's James Isles in bow.
For the U.S. eight, the time was more than nine seconds better than their heat time of 5:37.95, which was behind Great Britain (5:32.66) and Australia (5:35.53). The United States then won the repechage with a time of 5:38.64 to advance to grand finals.
(To view the entire grand final, please see the below video which is cued up to begin at the start of the eight.)
A day prior, the U.S. took bronze in the men's coxed four grand final, posting a time of 6:12.76. That was just 0.76 seconds behind second-place Great Britain and 0.39 seconds ahead of fourth-place Australia. Italy took gold with a time of 6:09.19. To get to the grand final, the U.S. finished third in its heat (6:20.97) before coming in second in the repechage (6:24.07).
(To view the entire grand final, please see the below video which is cued up to begin at the start of the four.)
Another Dartmouth connection in the U23 Championships was Ryan Tripp of Dartmouth's men's lightweight team, who finished second in the C final of the men's double sculls.
To read more about Dartmouth's connection to USRowing, please read this feature story posted leading into the U23 Championships.
