NSR Race Recap
Jacob Plihal led the way for GRPRow, taking 2nd in the M1x. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
The Craftsbury Green Racing Project (GRP) Row team kicked off their 2026 campaign with the USRowing National Selection Regatta in West Windsor, New Jersey on May 1-3. The event took place at a familiar venue on Mercer Lake, a staple host site for USRowing’s elite regattas. The race capped off a long training block for the team of indoor rowing and cross-country skiing followed by spring rowing camps for the Sprigs in Virginia, Florida, and New Jersey.
At stake in the racing were spots for the WorldRowing World Cups in June. First and second place finishers would punch their ticket on the USRowing national team for the races, joining a pre-selected group from January and February.
Large and competitive fields filled out each event in the four Olympic boat classes the GRP rowers competed in. The men’s and women’s singles consisted of 40 entries each, as well 11 entries for both the men’s and women’s pairs events. Competitors ranged from Olympic medalists and world champions to first time elite-competitors to round out a deep field of racers. Conditions were mild and the water was flat for the first two days of racing until strong quartering tailwinds reshuffled the lanes and race-schedule for the Sunday finals.
The Craftsbury athletes began racing with the time trials on the morning of Friday May 1st. Jacob Plihal was the highlight of the men’s single time trial, coming in first of all competitors with a strong time of 6:39.02. Thomas “Quin” Woods was next, placing 17th, followed by Caleb Nollenberger in 19th and Evan Hankins-Hull in 27th.
Next up was the women’s singles, with a block of Craftsbury athletes within nearly a singular second of one another. Sophie Calabrese, Sera Busse, Paige Wheeler, and Charlotte Wiley came in 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th respectively. Filling out the rest of the field was Catie Castle in 27th and Grace Donabedian in 37th.
Jesse Ryno ended 8th in finals in his composite entry.
Kai Hoite during his B final in the composite M2-. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
The pairs finished the Friday morning session with the men, with Jesse Ryno and Kai Hoite competing in composite crews (two athletes, one GRP, one non-GRP), finishing in ninth and 11th respectively. The women’s pairs raced with Craftsbury athletes Anna Jensen and Holly Drapp finishing seventh and eighth in composite lineups, and Natalie Hoefer and Sue Holderness rowing to an 11th place finish together.
Top 24 finishers in the singles events advanced to the quarterfinals Friday afternoon. For the men, Jacob Plihal and Caleb Nollenberger advanced to the A/B semifinals while Quin Woods missed out and moved to the C/D semifinals. In the women’s singles the four close finishers competed again in the quarterfinals, with all of Wiley, Wheeler, Calabrese, and Busse moving on to the C/D semifinals.
Saturday saw competition in all the events’ semifinals, led off again with the men’s singles. Jacob Plihal won his A/B semifinal in impressive fashion with the second fastest time of the day. Caleb Nollenberger had a fierce battle with US Training Center athlete Evan Falstrup, just missing out on advancing to the A-final by less than a second. The A/B semifinals for the men’s pairs came next, with Hoite placing sixth in the first semi and Ryno placing fifth in the second, moving both composite crews to the B-final on Sunday. The women’s pairs fared similarly, with all crews advancing to the B-finals by placement. However, in a somewhat unusual turn of events, Jensen’s composite crew was able to petition into the A-final after debris significantly interfered with their race. The semifinals were rounded out by the men’s and women’s C/D semis, in which Woods, Wheeler, Calabrese and Busse put in strong performances to move to the C-finals, while Wiley moved to the D-final in the face of stiff competition.
Quin Woods ended the regatta 2nd in the C final for 14th overall - not bad for his first event in the M1x. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
The first finals of the regatta followed the semifinals with the men’s and women’s E-finals Saturday morning. Catie Castle put in her fastest time of the regatta, showing strong composure and execution, placing third in her E-final. Evan Hankins-Hull, recently recovering from illness, rallied for an impressive battle that saw him take the victory by just eight hundredths of a second. Go Evan!
As the weather forecast for Sunday deteriorated, racing was shuffled to have all A-finals first thing in the morning due to strong cross and tail winds. Racing commenced at 7:00 AM sharp, with an eagerly anticipated showdown between America’s clearly two fastest male single scullers, our Jacob Plihal and New York Athletic Club’s Sam Melvin. The two scullers were closely matched, but Melvin managed to pull away in the middle of the race and hold off Plihal to the line. Jacob, having been preselected, was disappointed not to win but will still have the opportunity to race at the World Cups. In the women’s pair A-final, Anna Jensen and her boatmate put up a strong fight but fell to seventh, nonetheless demonstrating their class with a tight battle with the rest of the field.
In the first B-final of the day Caleb Nollenberger faced the increasingly worsening weather conditions in the men’s single B-final. In a close contest with rough water, Caleb placed 5th in his final. While not earning one of the direct bids to race the single internationally, Caleb will join Jacob Plihal in the preselected group racing at the World Cups in the June.
Holly Drapp in bow en route to taking the win in the W2- B final. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
Natalie Hoefer and Sue Holderness wrapped their B final with a 4th. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
The men’s pair B-final followed next, with Jesse Ryno’s composite lineup putting together their best piece of the regatta and finishing in second, while Kai Hoite rounded out the field in sixth. Holly Drapp and her partner rallied a strong performance to win their B-final comfortably, while Natalie Hoefer and Sue Holderness finished in fourth amid increasingly difficult conditions.
Sera Busse battled teammate Paige Wheeler (right) to take the win in the W1x C final. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
In the GRP’s last men’s race of the regatta, Quin Woods continued his great progress in racing a still new boat class and took second in the men’s single C-final. The second to last race of the day saw GRP women dominate the women’s single C-final, with Sera Busse and Paige Wheeler taking first and second place in a close battle that separated them by less than a second. Sophie Calabrese finished in fourth place in the C-final, and Charlotte Wiley ended in second in the women’s single D-final.
Charlotte Wiley in the finals. All photos courtesy of USRowing and Row2k.com.
