Posted Aug. 8, 2016 at 9:53 AM
Updated at 1:22 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO – All it took for Anders Weiss and Nareg Guregian to make the men’s pair rowing semifinals Monday was a simple change in attitude.

The duo made their Olympic debut in Saturday’s heat race with the goal of just qualifying. They failed, finishing 7 seconds behind the Czech Republic for third place and forcing them into the repechage, or last-chance, round.

The result wasn’t a win, but the Americans left Lagoa Stadium with a third-place finish — good enough for a spot in the semifinals on Tuesday morning.

“We didn’t win it,” said Weiss, a Barrington resident, “but we put down a very solid race because we were going for it (with) the aggressive mentality that I think we both row our best at.”

The pair had to wait 25 hours to make up for the disappointing heat race. Wind whipped up Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas to the point where officials had to postpone all of Sunday’s competition.

But neither Weiss nor Guregian doubted their chance to remain in the Olympics.

“We wanted to go for it from the start and let the chips fall where they may,” Guregian said

Unlike in Saturday’s heat race, the pair got a strong start off the line, maintaining contact with Netherlands (who finished first). They trailed the Dutch boat by just .9 seconds after the first 500 meters.

But it might have been too fast a start. By the time they reached that mark, Nuregian noticed they had a high stroke rate.

“That worried me a little bit,” Guregian said. “I didn’t know if we would be able to sustain it.”

Before the 1,5000-meter mark, the Serbian boat of Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik, who capsized in their heat race, made its move from fourth into second, forcing the Americans into a race with Spain for the final semifinal spot.

The U.S. pair managed to hang on at the line, crossing the line with a time of 6:36.60, just under 4 seconds ahead of the Spanish boat.

Weiss, Brown Univeristy graduate who is rowing in his first Olympics, credited Guregian for getting them into the Games. This time around, however, Guregian gave Weiss the credit for getting them into the semifinals.

“Anders did a good job making some good calls to regroup and refocus,” Guregian said.