This week saw the first postseason racing as teams from the east and west vied to qualify for the IRA national championship regatta. Eastern teams competed in the EARC championships (Sprints) and western teams competed at Pac 12s. These two multi lane regattas provided exciting races and shook up perceived hierarchies going into the season final race
Eastern Sprints
Princeton came into this regatta as the favourites in the 1-3V, and what seemed to be set up to be a dream regatta for Greg Hughes and his crew soured as Paul Cooke’s crew from Brown charged them down in the dying moments of the race to nip them by 1/100th of a second at the line. Brown, who notoriously find late season speed better than any other crew in the country, will be looking to keep on picking up momentum going into IRAs, as they will believe they can win it all for the first time in Cooke’s illustrious career. Hughes conversely will be looking to discover speed as they will have to improve to do better than last year’s third with UW and Cal looming as fierce contenders in the west. Yale also looked the best they have this season in the final. Starting in a disadvantaged lane due to a poor performance in the semi-final, they claimed third in an impressive effort which saw them beat Harvard, who had beaten them by a not-insubstantial margin at the beginning of the season. Penn, four seconds off Harvard, also narrowly bested Syracuse, who themselves beat Dartmouth by the smallest of margins (0.004 seconds) and who presumably had given all they had in the semi to claim fifth and sixth. Northeastern were a way off the pack, a damning result for that program.
In both the second and third varsity events, Princeton won by a length over Harvard, with Dartmouth claiming third in the 2V and Yale in the 3V. Harvard and Princeton have an incredible depth of talent this year and it will be interesting to see how the top eastern crews fare against the western, especially the UW lower boats. In the 4V Yale won, beating Brown who are displaying much better depth in the 4V/5V group than in previous years. Dartmouth were 3rd. Dartmouth won the 5V in a tight race over Yale, and Brown was in third although a ways behind. This is their third win in a row.
Pac 12 Championships
As most would have expected, this regatta was a two-horse race between UW and Cal. Some may even have expected a monopoly, as UW defeated Cal by a convincing four seconds at their annual duel. As expected, the varsity eight went UW, Cal and then Stanford, but Cal halved their gap to UW, finishing 1.8 seconds behind after a very strong second kilometre. This will be very encouraging for Coach Frandsen and his golden bears, who will believe that by tinkering with their race plan they can beat UW at IRAs. Whilst an overhaul of this margin in just under two weeks seems unlikely, though not impossible, it also shows crews in the east that Cal are a force to be reckoned with and will be fighting for medals in all boat categories. UW also won a tight 2V race with Stanford again a little while back. The UW 3V stole the show in many ways, ten and a half seconds ahead of the California 3V. No one will be excited to be racing the UW 3V come IRAs.
Comment
This leaves us beautifully set up for the IRA National Championships. I have been bullish on Brown all year and perhaps in my hubris I believe they may well win the national title. I think they will almost certainly have a good fight with UW for the first and second medal. It is very hard to know who else makes it onto the podium. Princeton and Cal are obvious choices, although Princeton seem to be trending the wrong way as the season progresses. So too do Harvard, although they have the talent to be very strong. I think Yale could be a strong contender for the bronze medal; after a commanding row in the final, they might be finding speed in line with their ability right at the end of the season.
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