OKC Athletes Bound for Rowing World Championships

After less than a year as a training center, the Oklahoma City National High Performance Center is sending 11 athletes as part of Team USA to the Rowing World Championships, Oct. 30 –Nov. 7 in New Zealand. Here’s the outlook for our crews:

Competing in the men’s eight will be coxswain Ned DelGuercio, OKC resident athlete Tom Peszek, Jason Read, Charlie Cole, Jake Cornelius, Brett Newlin, Dan Walsh, Mark Murphy and David Banks. Read won gold in the eight at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, while Walsh won bronze in the eight at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Five members of last year’s world championships squad return to the eight lineup including DelGuercio, Cole, Cornelius, Newlin and Banks. Germany won gold at the Munich and Lucerne world cup stops, while Great Britain won gold in Bled and finished top three in the others. The Beijing gold-medalist Canadian men’s eight, coming off a fourth-place finish in Lucerne, also will be among the top competition.

The lightweight men’s eight, coming off a silver-medal finish at the 2009 World Rowing Championships, has coxswain Stephen Young, Jimmy Sopko, Matt Kochem, and Skip Dise along with OKC resident athletes Kenny McMahon, Matt Muffelman, Michael Kerrigan, Julian Bowling and Bob Duff competing. Five members of last year’s crew return to the lineup including Sopko, Kochem, McMahon, Dise and Muffelman. Young, a first-time national team member, will also cox the men’s pair with coxswain boat that includes Nareg Guregian and OKC resident Justin Stangel. Guregian won silver in the four at the 2009 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. The U.S. is the defending world champion in the event.

The men’s pair event features OKC resident athletes Ryan Monaghan and Deaglan McEachern, who earned their berth to the team with a win at the 2010 World Championships Trials. Monaghan is a first-time national team member, while McEachern finished ninth in the quadruple sculls at the 2007 World Rowing Championships. The duo will take on a tough field including defending world champion New Zealand, Greece, Serbia and Great Britain.

Rowing in the lightweight men’s pair is the OKC resident athlete duo of Michael Nucci Evan Tsourtsoulas. Nucci was a member of the 2009 Under 23 World Championships squad, finishing ninth in the lightweight quad. Kastoria, Greece-native Tsourtsoulas is a seven-time Greek national team member and is competing for the United States for the first time.