As the season draws to a close, there is only one race remaining in the lightweight rowing season for America’s top programmes: the IRA National Championships. For lightweight men, three events are offered: two eights and a four. The eights events are limited to eight entries, typically the top seven from the Eastern Sprints and the best of the rest. By contrast, the fours event is open to all IRA members, this year attracting twelve entries.
Lightweight Varsity Eight
The season has been dominated by Harvard as they defeated most of the field in dual racing before claiming a comfortable victory at the Eastern Sprints. The crimson look well positioned to claim their first win in this event since 2013 in a remarkable rise since missing out on IRAs completely as recently as 2021.
Their closest opposition at the Eastern Sprints came from Penn, who have made serious steps on throughout the season. They opened April with a rather disappointing showing in their dual against Harvard and Cornell, finishing in third place, around four seconds back on the Crimson. By sprints, they were comfortably best of the rest, closing the gap to Harvard. If anyone is to provide an upset on Sunday, it will probably have to be the Quakers.
Defending champions Princeton have had a good showing this season but would struggle to be described as great. Five seconds off the pace of Harvard in both their dual and at Sprints, they picked up bronze on Quinsigamond at Sprints. This is broadly representative of their results so far as their only other defeat came to Penn by a narrow margin, but they lost more ground to the Quakers before the Conference Matchup. The IRAs is not a simple re-running so the two-week gap may be key to build speed for the Tigers but a gold medal seems out of reach with so much ground to make up.
Dartmouth and Cornell have enjoyed a remarkably tight battle as they were nearly impossible to split in the final at the Eastern Sprints. This is a remarkable building of pace in the late season from Dartmouth as they overturned a 3.5 second defeat in their dual not too long ago to claim fourth in Worcester. If they can carry this speed, they may elevate themselves above Cornell, but Tyler Nase’s men will be determined not to let that happen.
Counting themselves lucky to be in the entry should be the Yale Bulldogs as they posted the slowest time of the day at the Eastern Sprints, but since they had already made it through to the Grand Final they picked up sixth place and an automatic bid. It was a tough season for the bulldogs as they only recorded one victory in the flagship boat, over Georgetown, a result they repeated (by a smaller margin) in the morning at Eastern Sprints to make the Grand Final. They will be wanting to end this season on a high note as they look to lay good foundations for the coming season.
On the other side of that coin was the Navy Midshipmen who suffered in a very fast heat, being forced into the Petite final to fight it out for one spot. As was to be expected, they comfortably dealt with their opposition, winning with around a length of clear water. They will be looking for a better performance in the earlier rounds this weekend to avoid a repeat of that disappointing outcome on Quinsigamond.
The token non-Sprints school admitted into the entry is MIT, who won this event at the Dad Vail Regatta. In recent years, since this position has been inaugurated, the results have not been great but an early season victory over Dartmouth suggests the Engineers could be in a position to change this and break off the bottom of the timesheets.
Prediction
With the form Harvard has shown so far this season it would take a fool to bet against them for the win. My picks would be for Penn and Princeton to round out a repeat of the Eastern Sprints podium this weekend.
Men’s Second Lightweight Varsity Eight
Racing in the second varsity eight is restricted to those who qualified in the first Varsity Eight and all but MIT and Yale accepted this invitation.
The Harvard 2L has not quite matched the success of the first eight, falling in a number of different races across the season, including races against the majority of the Ivy League but improved when it mattered, finishing second at Eastern Sprints by a much narrower margin than their loss to Penn in the regular season. This building of speed is indicative of the potential for a storming success in the two-week gap before the IRAs.
The crew that was victorious at the Eastern Sprints was Penn, who have also made serious steps on through the year as an early season loss to Cornell was avenged by emerging unscathed through the remainder of the season before claiming top honours at Eastern Sprints. The Penn Quakers will make the short trip north with the intention of claiming the crown in this event.
Cornell’s second lightweight varsity eight entered the Eastern Sprints as the favourites, defeating all who came before them throughout the spring and looking unbeatable with comfortable victories against all five of their opponents. However, at the Championship regatta, they came unstuck. Fourth place in a tight field suggests that this crew has been unable to match the acceleration from their opponents, but this could provide the wakeup call required to shake them back into gear for the national championships.
The regular season for Princeton was more testing with a number of narrow defeats being inflicted upon the second-eight group. Again, at Eastern Sprints, they were on the wrong side of a narrow defeat, finishing in third, just 0.4 seconds behind Harvard. In many of these tight moments it comes down to the tiniest of margins and a healthy serving of luck. The tigers will be hoping to provide the speed to avoid such narrow decisions, or at least be on the right side of them this weekend.
Rounding out the field are Dartmouth and Navy, both Petite finalists at the Eastern Sprints. They have not quite had the pace to match some of the other crews, but none of that matters once they reach the start line on Lake Mercer. With all crews reaching the final, they require everything to go right just once to make an upset, and they will be laser-focused on Sunday to make sure that happens.
Prediction
After their progression through the season and large – by lightweight 2V standards – margin of victory at sprints, I would expect Penn to claim the gold this weekend. For silver, Princeton may finally get it right with Cornell rediscovering some of their regular season form for bronze.
Men’s Lightweight Varsity Four
To race in this event, the only requirement is to pay your affiliation fee, resulting in an interesting combination of crews. All eight teams in the first eights compete here alongside four who missed out on qualification, likely bringing their top athletes.
Following their victory in 2022, this is the second season in a row where the Columbia lions have missed out on qualifying for the premier event at the IRAs. This year, they will enter the four and it will be full of rowers looking to settle a score. The first eight from Columbia have had some successes including a win over Navy at the start of April but dead last at the Eastern Sprints suggests there is room for improvement in New York. The four getting a good result here would be a step in that direction.
The other Eastern Sprints team to miss out in the Varsity Eight was Georgetown who also will miss out for the second year in a row. Last year, they came out on top in this category and will look to repeat that glory in the absence of a spot at the top table. In the eight, they recorded wins over Navy and MIT in the regular season before finishing eight-overall at Eastern Sprints, two lengths away from qualifying for the premier event. This was an improvement on last year, so retaining the Healy Cup would be a strong consolation prize as they look to return.
Mercyhurst University are the third program to race here but not in the eights and seem to have switched their priority over to the smaller boat earlier than most. They comfortably reigned victorious in this event at the Dad Vail Regatta over MIT and others despite being well off the pace in the eight. This focus may prove beneficial as they seek to compete with the more established powers.
Rounding out the collection of programs only racing in the smallest men’s lightweight boat is Marietta College who do not have a standalone lightweight programme. Missing out in the heavyweight eight, Dad Vail’s coach of the year Greg Myhr has opted to race in both of the fours events. There is absolutely no form for this crew in the lightweight division so it will be interesting to see how they stack up.
Of those who are racing the eight, the most interesting here is Yale. Despite racing four eights at the Eastern Sprints, they have not entered the second Varsity Eight. This unorthodox decision from Andy Card shows a desire for hardware as the crew that defeated the 2V’s of both Harvard and Princeton in their tri-dual will be racing in the smaller boat-class.
Prediction
Based on their results in the eights, my picks would be for Georgetown, Yale and Columbia to make up the medals, but rowing a coxed four is a different skill to an eight, especially for lightweights, so there is greater room for error than in most picks.
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