Jordan Smith (left)

Jordan Smith, CEE 03, a former member of the Georgia Tech crew, won a place on the U.S. rowing team that will compete in August in the world championships in Gifu, Japan.

Smith, who has been training at the Penn AC rowing club in Philadelphia since graduation, and his teammates, Micah Boyd and coxswain Chase Phillips from the University of Wisconsin, needed to win two races and equal a qualifying time in the men's pair with coxswain finals at the national testing regatta at Lake Murray, N.J., July 24.

They won the first race by four seconds and, after a sloppy start, won the second race by one second. But there was still a qualifying time that had to be met.

"At 1,000 meters to go, we were one second off the time," Smith said. "Chase reminded us that we were racing for the chance to represent the United States and we pushed harder until we crossed the line and collapsed — we had no more to give. Our heads were throbbing and our legs were cramping and we looked for our coach. He raised his right hand and gave us a thumbs-up. We earned the right to represent the United States by 0.259 seconds."