June 12, 2012

U.S. Olympic Trials results

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - Two Stanford men's rowing alumni, Silas Stafford '08 and Austin Hack '14, kept their Olympic hopes alive Tuesday, each advancing to the semifinals of the men's pair event at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Mercer Lake.

The men's pair field is the most crowded of all classes at the trials, with 14 entries competing for one spot in the 2012 London Games this summer.

Only the four qualifying heat winners and the four subsequent repechage heat winners earned semifinal berths Tuesday. "Silas and Austin are making us all proud," said Stanford men's rowing head coach Craig Amerkhanian. "Stanford is being represented at the highest level of rowing, the Olympic trials. Both pairs are in the semifinals and my hope is they race nose to nose for the Olympic berth."

Stafford, part of the USRowing Training Center - Oklahoma City entry with Tom Peszek, advanced by winning the morning's fourth qualifying heat in a time of 6:58.356. That time was 11 seconds ahead of the Wisconsin/Stanford entry of Hack and partner Dariush Aghai, from the University of Wisconsin.

Hack and Aghai took advantage of their second chance, winning the third repechage heat in the afternoon with a time of 7:04.249 to qualify for Wednesday's semifinal round.

The boats of Stafford and Hack return to the water Wednesday morning. Stafford and Peszak will race in the first semifinal at 7:30 a.m. ET, while Hack and Aghai are in the second semifinal at 7:45 a.m. ET.

Each semifinal features four boats, with the top two finishers in each race advancing to Thursday's final.