World Rowing | USRowing | Rowing Canada

LUCERNE, Switzerland – Five former Washington rowers, including four in the United States men's eight, earned a trip to the 2016 Olympic Games thanks to their performances at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta.

The U.S. men's eight, with coxswain Sam Ojserkis '12 and rowers Rob Munn '12, Hans Struzyna '11 and Sam Dommer '13, won a thrilling final to move on to the Olympics while the Canada quadruple sculls, with Rob Gibson '09 rowing in the No. 2 seat, finished second to book its ticket to Brazil.

In both the quad sculls and the eight, the top two finishers in Tuesday's final races earned a spot in the Olympic field, as the majority of the qualifying teams had earned their places at last year's World Championships.

In the quadruple sculls, Russia led over the first 1,500 meters of the 2,000-meter race, with Canada and the U.S. in second and third, respectively. As the six boats came down the stretch, New Zealand was first to make a move and was followed quickly by Gibson and his Canadian quad.

Russia held off Canada at the end, but the second-place finish (with open water back to third place) was good enough for Gibson and his teammates. The U.S. quad, with Husky Ben Davison '18 rowing in the stroke seat, finished fourth, about eight-tenths of a second behind third-place New Zealand, and did not qualify for the Olympics.

The men's eight race, the final event of the day, was tightly contested throughout and came down to the wire. Poland led from the start and held onto its small lead into the final few hundred meters. With Spain having dropped into fifth (and last) place early on, it was a four-boat race for the two Olympic-qualifying spots.

At 1,500 meters, Poland held a 1.61-second edge over the American boat, which was just ahead of Italy and Australia, both in a virtual tie for third at that point. The gaps tightened in the final 500 meters and the U.S. managed to pull ahead at the end, finishing just 0.46 seconds ahead of Poland, which also earned a trip to Rio. Italy was third, just 0.82 seconds behind the Americans, while Australia (with UW coxswain Stuart Sim '16) finished in fourth, 4.41 seconds off the U.S. time of 5:29.16.

""It was tight," Ojserkis told USRowing.com. "The line was coming and I just told them, 'You have five strokes to go.' There was nothing more I could tell them to motivate them. I knew what was on the line. I told them they had five strokes to finish the job.

"We didn't know the result when we crossed the line," Ojserkis continued. "We knew we were in the top two. We didn't know if we had won or if we got second."

"I'm excited, exhausted, exhilarated and proud, the whole gamut," U.S. men's eight coach (and former UW assistant) Luke McGee told USRowing. "Obviously, this was tough. But in the end, maybe it was necessary, having to make some of the changes we made. The guys bought in the whole year, and they went through a heck of a year. They got what they earned."