Four Dartmouth rowers will compete in the 2019 World Rowing Under-23 Championship next week in Sarasota, Florida. US Rowing named two lightweights, Cooper Tuckerman ’22 and Max Marchiony ’22, as well as two heavyweights, Mark Levinson ’20 and Daniel Perez ’20, to the 72-person roster to compete from July 24-28.
During their freshman season, Tuckerman and Marchiony regularly raced in the first varsity 8+ boat throughout the season and were on the 4V- boat in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship in early June, which placed third.
This past season, Levinson helped the Dartmouth heavyweight team to a second-place finish in multiple races. Levinson was versatile, competing in V8, 2V, 3V and 4V boats over the season. After not competing in his sophomore year, Perez moved from the lightweight to the heavyweight team for the 2018-2019 season. Throughout the season, he notched various first, second and third place finishes, primarily in the 4V boat.
Levinson and Perez will race together in the Men’s Pair Race. After the end of the spring season, the two stayed in Hanover to train at the Dartmouth Development Camp. They cemented their spot in the World Championship with their strong performance in the 2019 U23 Trials in New Jersey from July 7 – July 10. On the final day, the pair came in first in the Men’s Two with the time of 6:48.95, edging out teams from Greenwich, Connecticut (6:51.19) and Seattle, Washington (6:54.45).
In Sarasota, Marchiony will race in the U23 Lightweight Two, along with Collin Hay of the University of Delaware. Originally from Weston, Massachusetts, Marchiony went home to train for the trials with the Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge. Marchiony and his teammate won the final race with a time of 6:47.26, two seconds ahead of a Greenwich crew (6:49.33). Despite the trials being filled with high pressure and stress, Marchiony was able to keep calm.
“It all comes down to trials, so there’s a high level of commitment, which was incredible. It was a great atmosphere,” Marchiony said.
Rather than compete in the U23 trials, Tuckerman took a different route to qualifying for the Championship, accepting an invitation to compete at the Selection Camp in Princeton, New Jersey.
After classes ended in June, Tuckerman left for Princeton, where he was selected out of 15 rowers to be one of the four in the US lightweight men’s quadruple skulls crew. Throughout the Dartmouth season, Tuckerman practices and races with the same teammates; however, at the selection camp, he said he had a completely new experience.
Tuckerman said his strategy coming into camp was “to take an open mindset to it … really relax and try to do what you can to match up with the guys.”
Preparation for the U23 trials and World Championship required time and dedication, according to Marchiony. In addition to his summer job at a moving company owned by a former rower, he had 10 to 12 practices a week on the water, and one to three practices off of the water. Along with his partner and coach, he practiced twice a day, first from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. then again from 5:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the evening. Marchiony spoke highly of his and his partner’s commitment to the process.
“We are dedicating our summers to [the World Rowing Championship] … We are fully invested”, he said.
Although summer training has taken place away from Dartmouth, Tuckerman and Marchiony’s short time at Dartmouth had a great impact on their success in this process. Marchiony said that the past season taught him how to face adversity and helped him mature.
However, without the school component this summer, the rowers are able to focus more on the sport, according to Tuckerman.
“It’s a different type of commitment [at Dartmouth] … The priority is always in the classroom. Whereas, here, in the summer, the priority is getting really fast in the boat and winning the World Championship, and that’s what we are going to try to do,” Marchiony said.
Dartmouth’s four rowers faced a significant amount of competition to make the team, with hundreds of rowers competing for a spot on the US roster for the 2019 U23 World Championship. After months of training building up to the races, the rowers said they feel honored and excited to race in the championship.
“It’s kind of like a dream I didn’t know I had,” Marchiony said.
Tuckerman echoed this sentiment.
“It is a privilege to be able to go to [Sarasota] and be a part of the best your country has to offer and wear the stars and stripes,” Tuckerman said.
Looking to next season, men’s lightweight head coach Dan Roock said he believes Tuckerman and Marchiony will have a great impact on the lightweight team with the experience they are earning this summer. The Big Green has even more incoming talent, as freshman David Edington ’23 of the heavyweight team was named to the U19 US National team. He will compete in the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championship in Tokyo, Japan in early August.
