HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England– The official draw for the 2019 Henley Royal Regatta was announced on Saturday. Following time trials on Friday, the 18 members of the Navy Rowing program that travelled across the Atlantic all learned that they had qualified for action this coming week at the prestigious international regatta. Highlighted by the Midshipmen racing under the United States Armed Forces banner in the King's Cup event, Navy will also have crews in the Hambleden Pairs Challenge Cup, the Prince Albert Challenge Cup and the Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup.
 
With the King's Cup on the line for the first time since 1919, the Mids in the United States Armed Forces boat (Bow #8) will begin their quest for glory with a first round matchup on Friday, July 5 versus the Canadian Armed Forces crew. Should they win their head-to-head matchup, the Mids will advance to a semifinal contest the following day versus the winner of the France-United Kingdom matchup. The other side of the eight-team mixed-gender international bracket consists of Germany-New Zealand and Australia-Netherlands. The championship race for the King's Cup will be held on July 7. Navy's King's Cup crew is scheduled to consist of heavyweight rowers Griffin Dunne, John Lamb, Jared Taintor and Jacob Klosowski, lightweight rowers Riki Gagnon and Chandler Washburn, and female rowers Ashlyn Dawson and Alexandria Vallancey-Martinson. Matthew Catanoso of the heavyweight program will serve as the coxswain.
 
The Navy heavyweight, lightweight and women's rowing programs will also be represented by nine athletes in a trio of other Henley Royal Regatta events. 
 
The first of two two-person events is the women's Hambleden Pairs Challenge Cup. Emily Krulik and Raye Brackett (Bow #559) begin their action with a matchup versus the English pair of Smith and Whittaker. A true international eight-team bracket, other squads come from the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand and China. The first of three days of competition begins on Friday, July 5.
 
The second two-person event with Navy athletes involves the pair of James Pushner and Brandon Sagawinia in the 10-team Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup. Pushner and Sagawinia (Bow #546) are drew a first-round matchup against fellow Americans Hamilton and Williamson. Should they win that contest on Thursday July 4, the Navy duo will advance to a quarterfinal tilt against the Dutch pair of Oyen and Steenman. Other nations that are represented in this event include, England, Ireland and Argentina. 
 
The four-plus crew (Bow #534) of Drew Bennett, Owen Firebaugh, John Schoenewolf, Ben Skinner and coxswain Pat Urrutia will fly the Navy flag in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup as one of 16 collegiate entrants. The field consists of eight English and eight American college-level crews. Navy's first-round matchup lines it up against Bath University on Wednesday, July 3. A potential quarterfinal head-to-head matchup would see Navy take on the winner of the Oxford Brookes-Georgetown contest.
 
All nine athletes that are competing in the latter three contests participated in the King's Cup training camp and will be representing the Naval Academy and the United States throughout the week.
 
The 2019 Henley Royal Regatta broke records this year with 660 entries, an increase of almost 100 on the benchmark set in 2018, with 159 overseas crews representing 17 nations.
 
As preparation for this week's Henley Royal Regatta, Navy's 18-person lineup was in action earlier this trip to England at the 2019 Henley Women's Regatta and the 2019 Marlow Regatta.
 
Racing on the historic River Thames as part of the 2019 Henley Women's Regatta, the four women on Navy's United States Armed Forces squad were in action with the Avril Vellacott Cup on the line in the Championship 4- classification. Competing in a three-day head-to-head single elimination event, the Mids began their time on the Thames with a time trial result of 4:56.3 that seeded them fourth of 14 teams. In its first round matchup on June 21, Navy cruised to a three-length victory over Oxford University with a winning time of 5:09. 
 
Moving onto Saturday, the crew of Emily Krulik, Ashlyn Dawson, Alexandria Vallancey-Martinson and Raye Brackett made it two-for-two with a 1.75-length win over the sixth-seeded Leander Club with a time of 5:12. Qualified for Sunday's semifinals, the Mids were felled by the eventual event winner Edinburgh University. The top-seeded Edinburgh crew clocked in at 4:57 and defeated Navy by 1.25 lengths.


 
Down the road at Dorney Lake, the 2019 Marlow Regatta involved the 14 male competitors from Navy's fleet in a pair of events. The first of Navy's two entries on the water on June 22 was its eight-man crew. Competing for the Willott Taylor Trophy in the Tier 2 8o University classification, the Mids turned in a time of 5:47.60 in their morning time trial to be seeded second overall amongst 27 boats, 1.17 seconds behind Oxford Brookes University. Once into the seven-boat A Final, Navy settled in early into third place with splits of 1:31.93 and 3:04.49 at the 500- and 1,000-meter marks. Navy overtook the Royal Shrewsbury School and Eton College boats over the next 500 meters to jump into first with a 1,500-meter time of 4:36.60. Down the stretch, the Mids pulled away from Oxford Brookes University with a margin of victory of 1.47 seconds, 6:05.51 to 6:06.98. Navy's mixed heavyweight and lightweight crew consisted of Griffin Dunne, James Pushner, Brandon Sagawinia, John Lamb, Jared Taintor, Jacob Klosowski, Riki Gagnon, Chandler Washburn and coxswain Matthew Catanoso.


 
Following a dominant time trial in which it was the top seed in the 20-boat field for the Tier 2 4+ classification by over nine seconds with a time of 6:30.86, Navy's mixed heavyweight and lightweight crew of Drew Bennett, Owen Firebaugh, John Schoenewolf, Ben Skinner and coxswain Pat Urrutia was the class of the A Final. The Mids came off the line blazing fast and were up 2.19 seconds over the second-place Warwick Boat Club just 500 meters into the race. Over the 2,000-meter competition, they were up 7.07 seconds at the halfway mark and 11.26 seconds at the 1,500-meter checkpoint. Cruising to the finish line, Navy won the Charles Rowe Memorial Cup by 13.86 seconds over the Nottingham Rowing Club with a final time of 7:09.75. Nottingham clocked in at 7:23.61.


 
"We are very proud of how our athletes have trained and competed so far," remarked Rob Friedrich, Director of Navy Rowing. "It's been great seeing our heavyweights, lightweights and women come together for a common goal.
 
"We are honored to represent the entire US Armed Forces and have a deep appreciation for the history of this regatta and the other countries competing for the Kings Cup."