U.S. Collegiate Rowing – IRA Championships 2023 Preview

While the season may be over for the open-weight women’s teams, for the men and the lightweight women the National Championships come this weekend on Mercer Lake, just up the road from Princeton, New Jersey. The four National Championships to be won ride on the four varsity eight events offered, while the heavyweight men will compete in the team points across three eights for the Ten Eyck Trophy.

Men’s Varsity Eight

This showpiece event is the jewel in the crown of the regatta. Twenty-four teams have earned their place in this event through performing in other races in the season. 

The favourites for this event would have to be the defending champions California, they returned all nine of their athletes who won here last year and made some key additions to their squad as well. The Golden Bears won the Pac-12 title comfortably three weeks ago and will want to carry that form across to the east coast.

From the east coast, the main challengers come in the form of the Yale Bulldogs, led by 14-time IRA champion coach Steve Gladstone in his final season before retirement, they will want to go out on a high, making Gladstone the most successful coach in the history of the championship. Winners at Eastern Sprints, they will add Olympic Champion Dan Williamson as he recovers from injury. 

The Bulldogs’ closest competitors on Lake Quinsigamond were the Princeton Tigers, powered by two British Freshmen in the five-six pair with Marcus Chute and Theo Bell previously of Windsor Boys’ School and Eton College respectively. Head Coach Greg Hughes will be hoping to continue their upward trajectory at IRAs.

Other contenders to look out for are Washington and Stanford who were very close at the Pac-12 Championship as well as Harvard and Brown who both recovered from tough patches in the regular season to get on the right track at Eastern Sprints. Syracuse and Dartmouth who were the other boats in that final are both having historically great seasons.

Men’s Second and Third Varsity Eights

The lower boats are somewhat harder to predict, as in the three week gap between the Conference and National Championships, these boats are more likely to have undergone dramatic reshaping. In the Second Varsity Eight, the coaches’ poll places California unanimously on top of the pile having won at the Pac-12 Championship. They also rate the Washington Huskies out of the rest of the west coast programs. Back east, it was Harvard who came out on top, but it was a very close final with Princeton, Brown and Syracuse all being in the hunt.

The Third Varsity Eight at Pac-12 was won by Washington, who are favoured by the seeding committee while Yale – who won the event at Eastern Sprints – will also be a top contender. Brown, Dartmouth and Princeton were a cut above the rest in the final at Eastern Sprints, while California can never be discounted in this current era with such a strong squad.

Men’s Division Three Varsity Eight

In the lower Division of racing, it has been Williams ruling the roost. Beating all division one opposition on their way to winning the National Invitational Rowing Championships is a demonstration of their talent. Number two against the same field, Wesleyan finished a full five and a half seconds behind and will be in the mix. Other crews to watch include Tufts and Trinity who also have defeats to Williams on their record.

Men’s Lightweight Varsity Eight

The Lightweight Varsity Eight has been among the most intriguing events all season long. One particularly dramatic twist was at Eastern Sprints, when, through a combination of illness and the failure of athletes to make weight, defending champions Columbia failed to qualify for this year’s championship.

In their stead, the winners of Eastern Sprints, Princeton, must be considered favourites. Second place Harvard recovered from their double crab in the dying moments of the historic Harvard-Yale-Princeton race to post a good result on Lake Quinsigamond.

With all of the men’s lightweight programs being from the east coast, the only source of non-EARC schools racing in the IRA came from Dad Vail where MIT prevailed. They will be hoping to impress with a good performance against the Eastern Sprints Schools.

Women’s Lightweight Varsity Eight

With Varsity Lightweight Women’s Rowing consisting of only eight schools and only six of them having entered the blue ribband eights event this year the field is quite narrow. Of these six, five of them were present at the Women’s Eastern Sprints about a month ago.

At this event it was Princeton who came out on top, ahead of Boston University, Georgetown, Harvard and Wisconsin. The only other entry comes from Stanford who will be wanting to challenge at the front of this pack. The Cardinal beat the side from Boston in their dual on the Charles in the regular season and while they lost to Princeton in this boat class in mid-April, now it is June they will be wanting to correct that mistake.

Varsity Fours

While many of the previous events must be qualified for, the Varsity Fours (and the Women’s Lightweight Varsity Double) are open to one entry from each institution. How this will shake out as the top athletes from programs like Temple and Holy Cross compete against athletes twenty-five through twenty-eight from deeper programs like California and Washington will be fascinating to see.

A similar situation exists in the lightweight men’s events with Georgetown being the most notable crew entered in just the four as Columbia have not sent a four either after their eight missed out.

For the lightweight women, the two events not requiring qualification have meant that MIT will join those in the eights for the four and the double, while Gordon will replace Stanford to give the double seven entries as well.

Summary

If you’ve read this far you’ll realise that the IRA Championships is about much more than just the heavyweight Men’s Varsity Eights. While the big programs like Yale, California and Washington attract the most attention, there is a whole lot more on show, across men, women, lightweights and divisions.

This is a festival of rowing unlike any other.

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