Varsity Pair hopes to be Cinderella story of National Championships

Port of Los Angeles, Calif., - May 28, 2007 – Thanks to a last minute scratching, USC will make its 5th consecutive appearance at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships in Camden, N.J. later this week.

Trojan seniors Alan Thesenvitz and Jonathan MacMillan received an eleventh-hour invitation from IRA selectors to race in the Varsity Pairs event at Nationals. USC won its first and only IRA National Championship in the Pairs event in 1976. Story continues below...



Head Coach Gene Kininmonth, who will fly out with the duo on Monday to supervise workouts on the Cooper River prior to the regatta, said his crew had initially been on the wait list of entries. “We received a late invitation on Thursday thanks to a late scratch from the University of Delaware.”

The late invitation effectively seeds the USC pair last among the fleet of eighteen universities that will compete for the Crandell Melvin Trophy.



“We are motivated by that and will be ready to race our best,” said Thesenvitz.

USC’s most recent medal at the IRA was silver, won in the freshman four event in 2003.