Fair Lawn's Tracy Eisser Finishes Fifth At Rio Olympics

FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Tracy Eisser's boat finished fifth in the women's quadruple sculls at the 2016 Olympics Thursday morning.

Eisser, 26, and her teammates, Grace Latz, Megan Kalmoe, and Adrienne Martelli finished with a time of 6:57.67, well behind gold-medal-winning Germany's time of 6.49.39.

Eisser's boat was in fifth place at the first checkpoint and again at the second checkpoint, five seconds behind the then-leader Poland. The ladies closed the gap to less than five seconds at the next checkpoint.

It was the first Olympic appearance for Eisser, a Fair Lawn High School alumnus. She started competitively rowing while enrolled at Cornell University and was named to the Olympic team June 20.

Eisser's boat finished third in the first heat to advance to the repechage, which gives the best-placed teams who failed to win a heat a chance to row for a spot in the finals. They beat Australia by six one-hundredths of a second to advance to the final.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Photo, from left: Grace Latz, Tracy Eisser, Megan Kalmoe, and Adrienne Martelli — Courtesy of US Rowing, Flickr