The U.S. women's double sculls advanced to the final, while the women's single sculls and lightweight men's double sculls moved on to the semifinals, after the first day of racing at the 2021 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland.
 
Fresh off their Olympic Trials' victory, the women's double sculls crew of Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University) and Kristina Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) made their international debut this morning, winning their heat and advancing directly to the final.
 
Racing in the second of two heats, Stone and Wagner got off the line in third position behind The Netherlands' duo of Lisa Scheenaard and Roos de Jong, the 2019 World Rowing Championships' bronze medalists, and China. With two to advance to the final, the U.S. rowed through the Chinese in the second 500 meters and were quickly closing the gap on the Dutch boat as the crews hit the midway point of the race. Stone and Wagner continued to chip away at the lead during the third 500 before passing Scheenaard and de Jong in the final quarter of the race.
 
"Winning the heat was a good start to our international campaign," Wagner said. "We were able to execute the race plan we had discussed prior to our race. Our base rhythm was good, but our start could use the most improvement. We are hoping to work on our start in the coming days to put together a more complete race on Sunday in the final. We feel lucky to even be racing internationally given the events of the past year and will continue to make the most of this experience."
 
Stone and Wagner finished with a time of 7:04.42, 0.79 seconds ahead of The Netherlands. Romania won the first heat in a time of 7:00.13, with the Czech Republic claiming the other qualifying spot. The four crews await the top two finishers from tomorrow's repechage in the final.
 
In the women's single sculls, Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley) won her heat to advance to tomorrow's semifinals. Kohler, the 2019 World Rowing Championships bronze medalist, was racing internationally for the first time since her medal-winning performance in Linz, Austria, nearly two years ago. Racing in the third of three heats, Kohler took an early lead on China's Yan Jiang in the first 500 meters and held her advantage the rest of the way down the course. With three to advance to the semifinals, Kohler crossed the finish in a 7:39.66 to finish nearly three seconds ahead of Jiang. Greece's Maria Kyridou finished third to grab the other qualifying spot.
 
Russia's Hannah Prakhatsen, who won the European Championships earlier this year, clocked the fastest time of the morning, winning the second heat in a 7:33.52. Defending world champion Sanita Puspure won the first heat in a 7:38.45.
 
Kohler will take on Puspure and Kyridou, as well as scullers from The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Mexico, in the first of two semifinals on Saturday. The top three finishers move on to the final.
 
After finishing fourth in their heat, the lightweight men's double sculls tandem of Zachary Heese (Pelham, N.Y./University of Virginia) and Jasper Liu (Phoenix, Ariz./University of Pennsylvania) advanced to the semifinals thanks to a third-place finish in their afternoon repechage. With three to advance, Heese and Liu battled Portugal for second and third most of the way down the course. Chile got off the line in first position, while the U.S. sat in second and Portugal in third. The Chilean crew continued to build on its advantage through the midway point of the race, as the U.S. and Portugal took control of the two remaining qualification spots. At the line, Chile won the race in a 6:41.62. Portugal finished with a time of 6:44.24, with the U.S. crossing in a 6:44.90.
 
Heese and Liu will take on crews from China, Norway, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal in the second of two semifinals. The top two finishers will move on to the final.
 
In the lightweight men's single sculls, Jimmy McCullough (Philadelphia, Pa./University of Delaware) came up just short of a spot in the semifinals, finishing fourth in his repechage. McCullough will race in tomorrow's C final for places 13-15 against Algeria and Spain. With three to advance, McCullough made a huge push over the final 500 meters to try to climb into a qualification spot but couldn't catch Japan's Masayuki Miyaura. Portugal's Dinis Durate Costa won the race in a 7:16.49, with Sweden's Ahmet Rapi finishing second, less than one second behind. Miyaura clocked a 7:17.76, with McCullough finishing in a 7:18.52. In the morning heat, McCullough also finished fourth behind scullers from Italy, France and Germany.
 
In the men's double sculls, Kevin Cardno (Huntsville, Ala./ University of Alabama, Huntsville) and Jonathan Kirkegaard (DeForest, Wis./Purdue University) will race in tomorrow's C final for places 13-18 after finishing fourth in their repechage Friday afternoon. With two to advance, Cardno and Kirkegaard dropped into fourth position off the start and were never able to challenge Lithuania and the Czech Republic for the top two spots. Lithuania won the repechage in a 6:27.55, just 0.10 seconds ahead of the Czech crew. The U.S. finished in a 6:43.83. In the  heat, the U.S. finished third behind Poland and Great Britain. The U.S. will take on crews from Switzerland, Chile, Venezuela and The Netherlands in the C final.
 
In the men's single sculls, John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College) won his morning heat to advance to the quarterfinals but was unable to move on to the semifinals during afternoon racing. With three to advance from the heat, Graves got off the line in first and held his position the entire way down the course, crossing the line in a 7:08.71, more than five seconds ahead of The Netherlands' Finn Florijn.
 
With three to advance in the quarterfinal, Graves rowed in fourth position through the 1,000-meter mark but could not stay in touch with Belgium's Tristan Vandenbussche for the final qualifying spot, dropping to sixth at the line. Germany's Oliver Zeidler won the race, with Lithuania's Mindaugas Griskonis taking second and Vandenbussche in third. Graves now will race in tomorrow's D final for places 19-24 against scullers from Sweden, Moldova, Bermuda, Brazil and Benin
 
Racing at World Rowing Cup II continues on Saturday with the remaining repechages, semifinals and finals in the non-Olympic boat classes. Finals in the Olympic-class events will be held on Sunday.
 
Sunday's finals will be streamed live on www.worldrowing.com from 10:15 a.m.-1:20 p.m. local time. Live audio commentary and the live race tracker will be available for all races on www.worldrowing.com.