CHUNGJU, South Korea - Former Ithaca College women's rowers Meghan Musnicki '05 and Taylor Goetzinger placed first in a qualifying heat of the women's pair at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea. The duo advances to a semifinal race on Thursday. Musnicki was a three-year varsity rower and two-time All-American at Ithaca College. Goetzinger began her rowing career at Ithaca College before eventually transferring to Cornell University, and graduated from Cornell in 2012.
 
In the qualifier, Musnicki and Goetzinger defeated pairs from Russia, Germany and Italy. The US duo grabbed the lead right from the start of the race and held it throughout, finishing in 7:24.03. Russia was second in 7:26.40 and Germany was third in 7:33.95.
 
"It was good," said Musnicki. "We did what we wanted to do, which was get into the semi and not go through the reps. It was great. We executed the race the way we wanted to."

Additionally, Musnicki has been added to the women's 8 for this week's world championships after another rower was injured. Musnicki was a part of the United States' gold medal- winning women's 8 at the 2012 Olympics. She will row in the sixth seat.
 
"It's exciting," Musnicki said of competing in two events. "It's the first time I've done it at a world championships. I'm really excited to see how it goes and just put it all out there."
 
 
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