First Place Finish for Shelton and Goff at Independence Day Regatta

Goff and Shelton

With one week to go before the 2012 Senior World Championship Trials, Oklahoma City athletes headed to the Independence Day Regatta as a final tune-up on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

For the lightweight men's pairs of Will Daly and Greg Flood, and Christian Klein and Kyle Traub, it meant a tight racing schedule for Friday morning. Both pairs raced in the final of the Men's Pair at the USRowing National Championships in West Windsor, New Jersey at 9:10 AM. Two short hours later both crews were sitting at the start line for the heats of the Men's pair at the Independence Day Regatta in Philadelphia.

With the top two finishers advancing to Saturday's final, all OKC entries cruised through the three heats of the Men's Pair. In heat 1, Justin Stangel and Blaise Didier finished first in 7:07.42 ahead of second place Vesper. Daly and Flood advanced to the final out of heat two finishing first in 7:00.72 ahead of Klein and Traub in 7:04.35. In heat three, Ryan Shelton and Max Goff won in 7:04.62 followed by University Boat Club.

Also Friday, OKC's Frank Petrucci failed to advance to the final of the Lightweight Men's single, finishing fourth in heat two in a time of 7:29.65.

Saturday afternoon, Greg Ansolabehere comfortably finished first in heat two of the Men's Single in 7:20.20. Just a few hours later, Ansolabehere teamed up with Potomac's Taylor Frank to race in the Men's Senior Double. The duo, after coming off a second place finish at US Nationals, won the IDR event in 6:45.44. Union Boat Club was second in 6:58.96.

Despite losing the Friday morning battle in the Men's Coxed pair at the US Nationals to teammates Stangel and Didier, Shelton and Goff were able to claim first place in the Men's Pair in the Saturday final of Independence Day. Shelton and Goff finished in a time of 6:53.35 followed by Daly and Flood in 6:55.49, Stangel and Didier in 7:00.87, Klein and Traub in 7:03.52. Vesper and University rounded out the field in 7:11.92 and 7:27.03 respectively.

On Sunday afternoon, Ansolabehere finished in second the final of the Men's Single. He clocked a time of 7:48.89 behind Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of Undine Boat Club.