JRN US Collegiate Review #3
Just as this year’s Boat Race was coming to a close, the first strokes of the second annual IRA Sarasota Invitational were being taken in Western Florida. This weekend marked the first real test of the season for the majority of the Top 10 schools in the IRA, with only two (Cal Berkeley and Syracuse) not racing on Saturday. With racing also taking place in New Jersey and New York, this weekend will surely shake up the men’s rankings come their release on Wednesday.
The IRA Sarasota Invitational
Started last year as an event between No. 3 Washington, No. 7 Brown, and No. 4 Yale last year (with the latter winning), the Invitational doubled in size this year as No. 5 Harvard, No. 6 Northeastern, and No. 8 Stanford were invited down south. The racing began on Friday night and almost perfectly followed the script as Yale put half a length into Brown, and Washington edged Harvard by a similar margin, with Brown turning over Northeastern being the only surprise.
Saturday lunchtime’s race would be one for the ages though, with the Crimson defying the rankings to flip both Washington and Yale to take the victory in epic fashion. Entering the last 500 metres with no more than a seat separating the Huskies and Harvard, the latter would manage to eek out one more seat before winning by only 0.6 seconds. Yale would follow just a length behind, and Brown half a second behind them. Northeastern finished fifth in a time of 5:32, and, whilst Stanford finished sixth, their time of 5:38 was not slow considering the conditions. The lower ranked boats also featured some rapid racing. UW’s Second Varsity cruised to a six-second win over Brown as they went 5:32, and in the Third Varsity UW and Brown again led the pack over their Harvard-Yale opposition.
No. 2 Princeton v No. 17 Drexel v No. 18 Georgetown v No. 23 Temple
No. 2 Princeton asserted their dominance on the Carnegie this weekend as they cruised to a 17-second victory over their three opponents. With a rhythm led by two-time U23 world champion Sophomore Theo Bell and the Brazilian Marco Misasi the Tigers asserted their dominance early and eased it home. The real battle of the Varsity race was between No. 17 Drexel and No. 18 Georgetown who were separated by barely three tenths of a second come the finish line. The Second Varsity was a closer affair with Georgetown only eight seconds behind Princeton, but the Third Varsity featured a margin similar to the First as Princeton swept the event.
No. 10 Dartmouth v No. 19 Columbia
The Columbia Heavies have spent the last few years in a bit of a rowing wilderness, solidifying themselves as mainstays of the IRA C-final every year since 2016. However, after their home race this weekend, it appears they could be on a steep upwards trajectory as US Rowing legend and three-time Olympic Champion coach Tom Terhaar enters his third season as Director of Rowing. Although the two programmes are separated by nine ranking spots, little over a second separated them in New York as tough crosswind conditions created a challenging race which saw both crews level at the halfway mark. The only other race of the day was the Second Varsity which saw Dartmouth win by a more convincing eight seconds.
Conclusions
Although the Spring season is still young, we are still only six weeks from Eastern Sprints and sixty days away from the IRAs; and whilst we don’t know enough about each program to truly predict their results, overanalysing individual races is both fun and can help us find some themes that may define the season.
Following a lacklustre five seasons it seems that Harvard may be in a position to medal at IRAs for the first time since 2019 this year. Despite losing Olympic pedigree in the form of Clark Dean, they still have U23 medals aplenty (all the way down to their Third Varsity) and as far as I am aware haven’t beaten Yale in a race since 2014. However, the one worry that the Crimson may have at the moment is the apparent gulf in speed between their first boat and every other Harvard crew whose results were less impressive in Sarasota. Whether this is indicative of an off-day or a greater issue within the program will be seen. Despite finishing fourth, Brown also appear to be in a very strong position, only three seconds off first and with a rapid set of lower boats to build off of in training. With notable names like Josh Golbus (stroke of the medal-winning USA U23 boat this summer) in the Second Varsity, Brown may still have plenty of room to grow.
Washington look formidable as ever, and their strong performances in the lower boats marked them as the most consistent crew in Florida. However, we have to remember that they often start the Spring Season strong due to their uninterrupted Winter training block. Only time will tell whether they will continue to improve or stagnate as the season develops.
Columbia are another crew to watch out for as they try to push into the Petite Final at IRAs this year for the first time in nearly a decade. However, don’t write off Dartmouth. Only four weeks ago was their river frozen over and it is a program that always finds speeds in the later weeks of the season. Combined with coaching from Olympic Champion Wyatt Allen, U-23 World Championship winning experience, and one of the deepest squads on the East Coast they should be set to find speed very quickly.
No matter what you take from this weekend of racing, the fact that four crews went 5:30 or below this early in the season is testament to the strength on show in the US Collegiate racing scene and an indication that this season is set to be as exciting as the last.
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