Bellows Wins Heat on Day 1

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Racing at the 2019 Pan American Games kicked off Tuesday morning with heats in seven events. The men’s and women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls, women’s pair, men’s four, and men’s single sculls all saw action on day one.

Lucas Bellows (Forest Lake, Minn.), who began rowing in college at the University of Minnesota, won his heat in the men’s single sculls in a time of 7:08.74, advancing directly to Wednesday’s semifinals. Bellows beat out Canada and Paraguay, who finished in 7:10.83 and 7:11.23, respectively. Both scullers will join Bellows in the semifinals. Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez recorded the fastest time of the morning, winning the third heat in a 7:00.27.

Maggie Fellows (Warick, Mass.) and Julia Lonchar (Columbus, Ohio) finished second in their heat of the women’s double sculls with a time of 7:07.33, edging out Canada by 0.53 seconds in the race for lanes. Cuba won the race in a 7:05.77. All crews advanced directly to the A finals on Thursday morning.

The U.S. women’s pair of Solveig Imsdahl (Scheelholz 15, Germany), a two-time Under 23 National Team member, and Liz Euiler (Meredith, N.H.) finished fourth in its race for lanes in a 7:42.38. Chile won the race with a time of 7:19.78. The crews will race again in Thursday’s A final.

In the men’s four, the U.S. crew of Jonathan Zagroba (New Rochelle, N.Y.), Veton Celaj (New York, N.Y.), Paul Verni (New Rochelle, N.Y.) and Thaddeus Babiec (Alexandria, Va.) finished fourth in a time of 6:30.86, just behind third-place, Cuba who finished in 6:29.99. The crews will race again in the A finals on Thursday. Brazil won the race in a 6:07.96.

Wes Vear (Marquette, Mich.) and Nathan Lado (New York, N.Y.) finished fourth in their heat of the men’s double sculls with a time of 6:36.49, placing them in the afternoon repechages. Cuba won the heat in 6:25.78. In the repechage, the duo finished third with a time of 6:31.96, behind Peru and Chile, who finished in 6:25.00 and 6:27.79, respectively. The U.S. will race in the B final on Thursday.

The lightweight women’s double sculls of Keara Twist (Seattle, Wash.) and Sydney Taylor (Dover, Del.) finished fourth in their heat with a time of 7:59.64, sending them to the repechages. Their heat was won by Chile in 7:16.61. Twist and Taylor finished the repechage just out of an A final spot. The crew finished fifth with a time of 7:24.25. They will race next in the B final.

Lightweight double scullers Cooper Hurley (Andover, Mass.) and Jimmy McCullough (Philadelphia, Pa.) finished fifth in their heat with a time of 7:56.54, placing them in the afternoon repechages. Mexico won the heat in 6:24.84. In the repechages, the U.S. finished fourth in 6:37.95. Canada won the repechage in 6:30.65, followed by Peru, which finished in 6:31.82. Those two crews will race in the A final. The U.S. advanced to the B final.

Racing continues on Wednesday beginning at 9:00 a.m. local time. The U.S. will have crews racing in the women’s single sculls, men’s pair, women’s quadruple sculls and men’s eight heats, as well as the men’s single sculls semifinals.