Oregon State’s Devery Karz Keeps Her Medal Hopes Alive by Advancing to A/B Semis

Devery Karz, Oregon State’s lone olympian, made her olympic debut Monday morning with her U.S. lightweight double sculls teammate Kate Bertko. Their start time was delayed nearly three hours due to windy conditions.

They needed a top two finish to avoid the repechage and immediately advance to the semifinals. Despite a strong race they were narrowly beaten out by the Chinese and Danish teams. Taking third place provided no comfort as they were forced to race in the repechage heat, which took place this morning.

Again needing a top two finish, this time to avoid elimination they managed to keep their medal hopes alive with a come from behind victory to win the heat. The Japanese team grabbed the second spot and both will advance to the semifinals.

Devery Karz and Kate Bertko guaranteed themselves a top-12 finish with today’s victory and will compete in the A/B semifinals tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:50 am Pacific Time. They will compete against Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and The Netherlands. Karz and Bertko are representing the United States and will race in lane 6.

Windy conditions have played a huge factor in every heat, so far. In fact, despite winning today’s heat, Karz and Bertko only finished with a time of 7 minutes and 58.90 seconds. Which was 51 seconds slower than their Monday finish because they were battling the wind more directly. It’ll be interesting to see if the wind continues to impact the rowers races and times.