Jacob Plihal finished second in the men’s Lotman Challenge on Saturday, October 24, three-quarters of a second behind Cedar Cunningham at the Gold Cup Regatta on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, NJ. GRP Rower Charlotte Wiley made the final in the women’s field, and Evan Hankins-Hull raced the men’s time trial.
Jacob Plihal at the Gold Cup Regatta. Photo: Jasper Liu
The Lotman Challenge is a sprint for American scullers, and only them. It is a sprint: a 733-meter time trial in the morning, with the six fastest going on to an 833-meter final from stakeboats in the afternoon. In the men’s time trial Plihal was second in 2:26.43, less than a tenth of a second behind Cunningham (2:26.34), who also raced the US quad at the World Championships this summer. In the final Plihal chased Cunningham home, 2:43.85 to 2:43.10. Plihal won the Lotman in 2022 and 2024.
Evan Falstrup-Fisker, a training partner with the GRP this fall, was fifth in the time trial and third in the final in 2:47.60, edging James Schmidt. Hankins-Hull was eighth of ten in the time trial in 2:34.29, missing qualifying by 1.61 seconds.
Evan Falstrup-Fisker. Photo: Jasper Liu.
Wiley raced four days after winning gold in Qingdao (read about it here). She was third in the women’s time trial in 2:50.58, three seconds behind Kristina Wagner, and fifth in the final in 3:08.65. Lauren O’Connor won the women’s race by eight hundredths of a second over Margaret Fellows.
“Racing the Lotman Challenge was a valuable learning experience, both in terms of the competitive field and in terms of how travel, recovery, and preparation can affect performance,” Wiley said. “With sights set on Small Boat Nationals in two weeks, I’m putting more of an emphasis on intentional preparation and returning to tried-and-true race-specific habits that I wasn’t able to fit into travel between Qingdao and Lotman.”
Hankins-Hull called the short course an adjustment. “Time trials have always been a bit of a struggle for me. Shortening the distance added an interesting x factor that threw off my normal pacing strategies. It was a bit of a weak performance, but a good learning opportunity.” Over the next few weeks, he said, he is working on being more consistent through pieces, rowing cleaner in someone’s wake, and remembering that “there’s always time to make a change.”
“In all honesty, the Lotman is a side quest at the start of our year, but one we’re thankful for despite its divergence from the usual periodization of the year,” said coach Steve Whelpley. “It allows athletes to go out and try to showcase their talents through a unique distance and format. All in effort to bring back a performance-based cash prize.” Whelpley said Plihal, Hankins-Hull and Wiley each wanted to “throw their hats in the ring” knowing their physiological strengths.
The margins are tighter than in a 2,000-meter race, Whelpley said, which showed in the time trials and finals. “One stroke less crisp than the last one, and you may drop a placement.”
Next up: Fall Speed Order, the USRowing Small Boat National Championships, November 14–15 at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, NJ. The full lineup is in the GRP Row Fall Schedule.
Camden High keeping the vibes right. Photo: Jasper Liu.