PRINCETON, N.J. -- Former first team All-American Bates College rower Elizabeth Sonshine '12 will compete at the 2018 World Rowing Championships as a member of the U.S. National Team.
Sonshine (Short Hills, N.J.) will compete in the women's quadruple sculls for the second straight year. After finishing third in their heat and first in the repechage, Sonshine's crew finished fifth in last year's grand final in Sarasota, Florida with a time of 6:22.060.
This year's World Championships take place September 9-16 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and the crew returns three of the four rowers, including Sonshine, who competed at last year's regatta.
"We hadn't been practicing together very much as a boat last year so our first race was a new experience," Sonshine said. "We got stronger and stronger as the regatta went on and this year we've been practicing together much more so we feel more prepared."
Last year, Sonshine became the first women's rower in Bates history to qualify for the World Championships and the second to qualify for the U.S. National Team. Three-time All-American Nicole Ritchie '09 won a silver medal in both the double and quadruple sculls at the 2015 Pan American Games.
Qualifying for the team again this year was not easy.
"Last year's selection was pretty quick, it only took a few days, but this year it took place over the course of a month," Sonshine said. "It was extremely brutal and there was very strong competition within the group."
For Sonshine, the ultimate goal remains qualifying for the 2020 Olympics. This year's World Championships are a good test to see where the crew stands as they look forward to Olympic qualifying in 2019.
"This is the last year where it's a little lower stakes," Sonshine said. "Next year will be a higher pressure situation."
Two Bates rowing alumni have competed in the Olympics. Andrew Byrnes '05 won a gold medal in 2008 and a silver in 2012 as a member of Canada's men's eight. Mike Ferry '97 preceded Byrnes by rowing in double sculls for the U.S. at the 2000 Sydney Olympics (he was a semifinalist).
Sonshine majored in geology at Bates and used her senior thesis to help understand the distribution of coastal seagrass beds through geologic history.
The major requires fieldwork during Short Term during the spring, which often takes students far from campus for weeks during prime rowing season. For Sonshine and the other rowers who were geology majors, the faculty "were able to help us stay local so we could continue to compete on the team," Sonshine said.
While at Bates, Sonshine helped the Bobcats finish second in the country four straight years from 2009-2012.
"It was great spending pretty much my entire college career outside, whether it was studying geology or competing on the rowing team."
Complete press coverage, athlete bios and links to event information will be available at www.usrowing.org and www. worldrowing.com. Follow along with the U.S. National Team as it prepares for the 2018 World Rowing Championships by using the hashtags #WRChamps and #WRChamps18.
