Alum Zach Heese Headed to the Olympics

Vesper Boat Club's Zachary Heese (Pelham, N.Y./University of Virginia) and Jasper Liu (Phoenix, Ariz./University of Pennsylvania), who raced together in the lightweight quadruple sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, won the final of the lightweight men's double sculls. Heese and Liu took a two-second lead in the first 500 meters and slowly built their advantage through the middle half of the race.

At the line, Heese and Liu crossed with a time of 6:29.79, finishing more than five seconds ahead of teammates Jimmy McCullough (Philadelphia, Pa./ University of Delaware) and Josh Remland (Temecula, Calif./Brown University). McCullough and Remland finished with a time of 6:35.50. The Riverside Boat Club composite crew of Alex Twist (Boston, Mass./University of Puget Sound) and Hugh McAdam (Hollis, N.H./Washington College) finished third, followed by Vesper Boat Club's Cooper Tuckerman (Bozeman, Mont./Dartmouth College) and Charles Bickhart (Villanova, Pa./Lehigh University).

"We had a great race today," Heese said. " We were super excited that we had three doubles from our club in the final. We had an awesome training camp together, all three of us, and we really pushed each other. We knew when we got out on the start line today, it would be just like any other day where everyone was going for it. So, I think that made me a little nervous, but it also gave me confidence knowing that all six of us together had really put something together that would put us up on top."

Click here for complete results from today's racing.

Click here for the full USRowing article and check out the interview with Zach Heese and Jasper Liu.

Click here for a schedule of upcoming USRowing Events.