Nine crews made the 2022 Beach Sprint National Team on Friday after winning the 2022 USRowing Beach Sprint National Team Trials on South Lido Key Beach in Sarasota, Fla.
 
The winning crews earned the right to race at the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals scheduled to take place October 14-16 in Saundersfoot, Great Britain.
 
The most hotly contested event was the open mixed double sculls where 2021 Beach Sprint National Team members Elizabeth Hinley and John Olbrys earned the victory in the final over The Stewards Foundation's Stacey Price and Doug Davis. With eight crews in the field, Hinley, who raced the event at last year's World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, and Olbrys, who won bronze in the mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain last year, posted the fastest time in the time trial to set up their victory run.
 
"The thing coming into this for me was just the next step up from last year," Hinley said. "Last year, a lot of us were, 'I'm going to give this a go, see how it is; how quickly can I learn things?' This time around, knowing a lot of it coming in, it was, 'Can I elevate my performance?' No matter what the outcome was, I felt really good, with all the boats that I did today, that I've elevated from what I did last year."
 
Hinley and Olbrys advanced directly to the semifinals from the time trial, where they beat Kory Rogers, who was Hinley's doubles partner in 2021, and Isabelle Foster to advance to the final. In the race against Price and Davis, Hinley and Olbrys clocked a 2:28.1 to finish nearly seven seconds in front of The Stewards Foundation boat.
 
"We felt really confident to get the top half coming out of the time trial," Hinley said. "(Winning) the time trials, we had that little extra rest in between. It was probably my savior since I had the women's single before and those quick turnarounds were pretty brutal. I trusted in my partner, John. I knew he trusted me, and that's what carried us into it."
 
Next Level Rowing's Cassidy Norton, who reached the quarterfinals in the women's solo event at last year's Beach Sprint Finals in Portugal, will be heading to Saundersfoot after defeating Hinley in the women's solo final.
 
"The first time it happened, it kind of felt like it was unbelievable. That was the first time it happened, and the person I was going against flipped," Norton said. "Coming out here and proving to myself that I can win – doing it by myself. It's a big moment realizing that all your hard work is going towards something and you get to follow what you want to do."
 
Norton posted the fastest time in the time trial to earn the top seed in the knock-out round. She then defeated The Stewards Foundation's Anastasia Prince by nearly 10 seconds in the semifinal before besting Hinley by nearly nine seconds in the final with a time of 2:58.7.
 
"I was definitely exhausted by the final," Norton said. "I can say the same for my competitor. She went straight from another race. But it's all about pushing away the exhaustion and just going for it. If you don't go for it, you aren't going to be able to make it. The last 150 (meters), it's all up in your head. You have to believe that you are going to go, and you have to make sure that you are pushing. It's all mental."
 
Norton's Next Level Rowing teammate Christopher Bak is heading back to the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in the men's solo event after another strong performance at the trials. Last year in Portugal, Bak won his time trial and then his round of 16 matchup before missing a buoy and getting knocked out in the quarterfinals. His run at redemption started today.

"This was a really important win for me," Bak said. "I ended up stepping away from a few positions that I had job wise and really focused on rowing this past year, so I kind of banked everything on trials this year. I'm thankful that it worked out, but I couldn't have done it without a huge support group."
 
In the time trial, Bak posted an eight-second victory over the field. Bak then bested Davis in the semifinal by just over three seconds before defeating The Stewards Foundation's Neil McPeak in the final by 6.5 seconds in a 2:28.9.
 
"Someone texted me last night and just reminded me that, 'Your body is ready; your body is going to do the work, and you just have to not let your head get in the way,'" Bak said. "I think I was able to manage that over the races."
 
A couple of hours later, Bak sat in the bow seat of the victorious Next Level Rowing mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain crew. The Next Level Rowing boat of coxswain Peter Choi, Rogers, Jeni Sorli, Morgan Hummel, and Bak won the time trial by just 0.6 seconds to advance to the final where they faced Potomac Boat Club. After the race was delayed due to breakage in the Potomac boat, the Next Level crew was able to win the final by nearly seven seconds, finishing with a time of 2:15.2.

In the junior races, Brian O'Leary and Britt Wotovich, who won the silver medal in the junior mixed double sculls at last year's World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, will be heading back to try to improve on that finish after easily winning today's final. The duo finished second in the time trial but was able to come back and win the final by more than eight seconds over Great Miami Rowing Center's Annalie Duncomb and Malachi Anderson. O'Leary and Wotovich finished with a time of 2:24.5.
 
Wotovich also won the junior women's solo event, as well as the junior women's double sculls event. In the solo event, Wotovich, who finished fourth last year in Portugal, won her time trial over Duncomb by just over a second before coming back to win the final by 3.5 seconds in a 2:56.8. Wotovich rowed with Duncomb uncontested in the junior women's double, covering the course in a 3:05.1.
 
Like Wotovich, O'Leary also won his solo event. O'Leary won the time trial by nearly 10 seconds to earn a spot in the final. He then defeated Great Miami Rowing Center's Gary Rought by nine seconds in a 2:43.4. In Saundersfoot, O'Leary will try to improve on his quarterfinal performance from last year.
 
"The single's race was pretty good," O'Leary said. "I felt like the boat moved a lot faster. I've sailed before, so I know how the water moves, and I was finding those deep patches where the boat would just fly, and I kept a nice and tucked course all around the racecourse, so I saved a lot of time there."
 
In the junior men's double sculls, Great Miami's Anderson and Rought were able to earn their first national team berths. The Great Miami duo won the time trial by just 0.3 seconds to advance to the final before defeating the Lake Leelanau/Rose City composite crew of Leo Lombardi and Joshua Li by 4.2 seconds in a 2:27.6.
 
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