Aug. 5, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Barely one month after being hired as Coordinator of Rowing and Head Coach at Loyola Marymount, Vaclav Kacir is already making waves on the national level. On Thursday, August 4, Kacir coached the duo of Brian de Regt and Jon Winter to victory at the US National Rowing team trials in the Men's Lightweight Double at Lake Mercer in New Jersey. By winning the US trials, De Regt and Winter have qualified for the 2011 World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, which run from August 28-September 4, 2011.

De Regt and Winter have been coached by Guenter Buetter the past two years, but because Buetter has been in Eton, Great Britain coaching the US Junior sculling team, Kacir was asked to travel to New Milford, CT to coach and train the duo. After having only beaten the second place crew in June by less than two seconds, de Regt and Winter extended that margin to over three seconds with the help of Kacir. The crew won with a time of 6:34.04 over the composite entry from USTC-Oklahoma City/New York Athletic Club's Robert Duff and Tom Paradiso that finished in 6:37.01.

"Coach V has been a big part of our success at the elite level," Winter said. "We brought him out to our club to help us find more speed before the World Championships. There are very few coaches I would trust with this sort of task, but he is an exceptional coach, and spending a week with him has definitely helped us go faster. LMU is lucky to have him as its Head Coach."

Following the World Championships at the end of the summer, the duo will set its sights on qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. The lightweight double is one of only two lightweight boats that compete in the Olympics.