U.S. quadruple rowers cruise into semis

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece - Their boat is full of first-time Olympians, but they rowed Tuesday with the savvy of world-class veterans.

The U.S. quadruple sculls team of Kent Smack, Brett Wilkinson, J. Sloan DuRoss and Ben Holbrook made the semifinal of the men's quadruple sculls with a comfortable first-place finish Tuesday ahead of Switzerland, Great Britain and France in the wind-delayed second-chance (repechage) races.

``Coming through the rep isn't too bad,'' said Wilkinson of Lawrenceville, N.J., after finishing with a time of 5:46.54 in the 2,000-meter race.

``It's nice to get a comfortable win under our belts and get that confidence going into the semi,'' he said. ``We worked out the jitters the first two races. So the Olympic anxieties are past now.''

Wilkinson, 28, is a native of Hyde Park, N.Y., and a graduate of Bucknell University and Roosevelt High. Roosevelt has had alumni competing in the last four Summer Games of the Olympics in rowing or track and field.

Smack, 29, grew up in Clinton Township, N.J., and was an all-state lacrosse player at North Hunterdon Regional High School. He took up rowing in 1993 in his freshman year at Hobart College when he realized he'd ride the bench as a college lacrosse player.

Lacrosse's loss was U.S. Rowing's gain.

``We were able to lengthen out after the start of the race,'' Smack said of Tuesday's race. ``We set up a nice rhythm and flow in the boat. Our stroke rhythm was a bit slower, but our speed was a bit faster overall, which is something a rower is always looking for. At the 1,000-meter mark, we felt pretty well established in the piece, like we could control the other boats. There was a little sprint the last 250 meters just to get our feet wet.''

Their next race is Thursday.

Wilkinson's girlfriend is two-time Olympian and U.S. women's quad rower Kelly Salchow of Cincinnati, who has been living and training in Princeton, N.J., where Wilkinson also trains.

The races are taking place at the Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Center, about 25 miles from Athens near the Aegean Sea.

High winds are common in Greece in August. A year ago this month, the Schinias course made international news when the World Rowing Junior Championships were whipped by winds so strong that boats sank. The U.S. men's eight had to swim with their boat to the finish line.

A full day of racing was canceled Monday, and Tuesday's races didn't start until 2:30 p.m. to give the wind a chance to die down.

U.S. boats also advanced Tuesday to semis in women's single sculls, men's four, lightweight women's double sculls and lightweight men's double sculls.