May 18, 2010

Cole Earns Win in U.S. Rowing Regatta

Class of '07 Oarsman Among U.S. Elite

PRINCETON, N.J. - Former Yale rower Charlie Cole's pair won the 2010 U.S. Rowing National Selection Regatta on May 15 on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. The victory confirms Cole's place as one of the two top sweep oarsmen in the United States. It is the second straight year he has captured this event.

Cole (New Canaan, Conn.), teamed with Jake Cornelius (Brooktondale, N.Y.), won the men's pair by 2.5 seconds. The duo won each of its preliminary races en route to the final.

Cole and Cornelius gained a 3.3-second lead over USTC – Chula Vista's Dan Walsh (Norwalk, Conn.) and Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.) at the 1,000-meter mark before crossing the line in a 6:27.942 in the final event. Walsh and Rummel finished second in a 6:30.433, followed by USTC – Princeton's Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.) and David Banks (Potomac, Md.) with a 6:33.919.

“The racing was very close all weekend and hopefully it is a positive reflection of where our group is right now,” said Cole, a 2007 graduate who will not be in Connecticut for the May 29 Yale-Harvard Regatta. “We were racing our teammates so the fact that the group as a whole was tightly bunched and that there was some good racing was the most positive takeaway.”

Up next for Cole is next week's World Cup in Bled, Slovenia.