WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's Eli Rabinowitz and Ruben Luthra both traveled to Plovdiv, Bulgaria to represent the United States competing at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in early July. Rowing in the Lightweight Men's Quadruple Sculls Final, the boat finished fourth coming up just short of the podium with an overall time of 6:07.74.

"It was a special experience to represent the United States on the world's stage and one that I will cherish forever," said Luthra. "Thank you to all of those who helped me get to this point, including the coaching staff at Georgetown."

Italy won the race coming in at 5:54.50, with Germany (5:56.52) and Canada (6:01.43) right behind followed by the Americans. The event marked Rabinowitz's second time representing the United States at the U23 World Championships, and was a first for Luthra. 

Both athletes spent the summer training at the Conshohocken Rowing Center just outside Philadelphia. They had to go through a selection process to make the boat and then win trials to advance. Their teammates were both rowers from the University of Pennsylvania.

This past season, Luthra sat in the stroke seat of the Varsity Lightweight 8+ for the Hoyas, while Rabinowitz was in the five seat.

"Although it was disappointing to come up short of our ultimate goal of winning a medal at the World Championships, I am extremely proud of the work we did this summer," said Rabinowitz. "It is a tough assignment to bring together guys from different collegiate programs and mesh them into one cohesive unit and go race crews that have been training together all year. Despite this, we had a great time training and working toward our ultimate goal this summer. I want to thank Coach Madigan and Justin DeGaetano for their support throughout the year and The Conshohocken Rowing Center and all of its coaches for investing their time into this U23 lightweight rowing project."