Oct. 14, 2010
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Jimmy Sopko `05, Julian Bowling `10 and Michael Kerrigan `10, all of whom rowed for the Varsity Lightweight Team at Navy, have been named to the US National Rowing Team at will compete at the world championships which will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 7 in Karapiro, New Zealand. Joining them will be last year's Navy plebe lightweight coach, Matthew Muffelman.
Selected for the Lightweight 8+ through US Rowing's highly competitive camp system, the four men qualified for the world championships by winning the 2000-meter race at the World Rowing Championship Trials in West Windsor, N.J.
This will be Sopko's second time and Muffelman's fifth time representing the USA at the world championships. It will be the first appearance for both Bowling and Kerrigan.
At last year's world championships in Poznan, Poland, Sopko and Muffelman earned a silver medal.
Bowling and Kerrigan are not exactly new comers to the international racing scene. Bowling represented the USA at the under-23 world championships in 2009 in the men's lightweight four. Kerrigan rowed in the men's lightweight pair at the same championships in 2010.
Sopko graduated in 2005. He was part of the 2004 squad that went undefeated and won the Eastern Sprints and the national championship in the men's collegiate lightweight eight. He served as captain of the team as a senior and earned the Spirit of the Lightweight Award in 2005.
Following graduation, Sopko earned a master's degree in math from Naval Postgraduate School before serving most recently as the navigator aboard the USS Ford, based in Seattle. He has since separated from the Navy to pursue rowing full time.
Bowling was a member of the 2008 crew that earned a silver medal at the national championship in the men's collegiate lightweight eight. Both he and Kerrigan were members of the 2010 crew that garnered that same award.
Following the world championships Bowling and Kerrigan will attend The Basic School and begin careers in the Marine Corps.
Muffelman graduated from Dartmouth College in 2003, where he served as captain of the lightweight team in 2002 and '03 and as president of the Dartmouth Rowing Club in 2003. Upon graduation, he moved to Boston to train at the Riverside Boat Club for three years before making the jump to the U.S. national team.
In 2009, Muffelman was hired as the freshman lightweight rowing coach at the Naval Academy, guiding his crews to a 12-1 regular season and finishes of first and fifth place in the Eastern Sprints. In hopes of earning a spot in the 2012 Olympics, Muffelman has put his coaching career on hold as he pursues his rowing goals.
