HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England – The United States Armed Forces team made up completely of Navy student-athletes kicked off its participation in the 100th Anniversary King's Cup competition at the Henley Royal Regatta on Friday. One of eight international mixed-gender crews in the King's Cup event, Navy's squad was matched up in the quarterfinals against the Royal Military College of Canada racing under the Canadian Armed Forces banner. Buoyed by a strong start, Navy breezed to a victory to advance to Saturday's semifinals.
 
In the third quarterfinal King's Cup matchup of the day, Navy's crew broke out of the blocks fast and quickly found open water between itself and Canada. Stretching its lead out over the 2,112-meter contest, the boat of Midshipmen was able to pull back its stroke rate over the last quarter of the race to cruise across the finish line with a 3.66-length margin of victory over the Canadians. 
 
The lineup for the United States Armed Forces boat on Friday consisted of Chandler Washburn and Riki Gagnon of the Navy lightweight program, Ashlyn Dawson and Alexandria Vallancey-Martinson of the women's team, and Griffin Dunne, Jacob Klosowski John Lamb and Jared Taintor from the heavyweight team. The boat was cox'd by Matthew Catanoso from the heavyweight program.
 
With that victory, Navy will turn its attention ahead to a Saturday morning matchup against the French Armed Forces crew. On Friday, France knocked off the United Kingdom entry in a hard-fought race that was decided by ¾ length. On the other side of the King's Cup bracket, Germany defeated New Zealand (two lengths), while Australia cruised over the Netherlands (four lengths). 
 
Saturday's race times for the King's Cup semifinals are 7:20 a.m. for Germany-Australia and 11:20 a.m. for United States-France.
 
Prior to Navy's effort in the King's Cup on Friday, the Midshipmen were represented in the Hambleden Pairs Challenge Cup competition by the duo of Raye Brackett and Emily Krulik. The Navy pair were matched up  against a local duo of experience rowers in Pippa Whittaker and Tricia Smith. Both members of the victorious Cambridge Blue Boat at the prestigious 2019 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, Whittaker and Smith pulled ahead from Brackett and Krulik about one-third of the way down the course before pulling away to a 3.75-length margin of victory in the quarterfinal contest. 
 
Brackett and Krulik will now return to the Naval Academy for their respective senior years. During the 2019 spring season, the duo played a leading role in the Mids' fifth consecutive Patriot League conference title as both rowed in the program's first varsity eight boat.
 
Similar to the first three days of action, Saturday's King's Cup semifinal racing will be streamed live on the Henley Royal Regatta YouTube channel.