No. 5 Men’s Crew Completes Day One at IRA Championship

Friday, May 31

Gold River, CA

All Day

Brown University

IRA Championship (Fri)

No. 5 Men’s Crew Completes Day One at IRA Championship

5/31/2019 8:11:00 PM | Men's Crew

Results Photo Gallery

Brown advances three boats directly to Saturday's semifinals

GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The No. 5 Brown University men's crew captured a trio of top-two finishes as the Bears completed the first day of the three-day IRA National Championship regatta Friday at Lake Natoma.

The varsity, second varsity and third varsity all advanced directly to the A/B semifinals on Saturday, while the varsity four will race in the C/D semis.

The varsity boat opened the morning with a second-place finish in the fourth and final heat to advance directly to the semifinals. Harvard established an early lead and held a length advantage around 1,200 meters before crossing in first place at 5:40.40. Brown rowed in second for nearly the entire race and crossed at 5:43.36 in front of third-place Navy by seven seats.

In the second varsity, Princeton jumped out to an early lead in the fourth and final heat, but the Bears used a strong push during the middle 1,000 meters to claim the lead. Brown continued to press down the stretch and held about half a length at 1,500 meters, and then cruised to victory at 5:46.78, with nearly seven seats over the Tigers at the finish line.

Brown's third varsity boat also advanced directly to the semifinals with a runner-up finish in the third heat. The Bears passed Syracuse at 500 meters, and then challenged Princeton the rest of the way, pulling up to nearly two seats around the midway point. The Tigers crossed first with a four-seat win, before the Bears claimed second at 5:50.29 to upset their seed, as both crews advanced directly to the Saturday semifinals.

The Bears closed out the morning heats with a fifth-place finish by the varsity four as the crew crossed the line in a time of 6:49.84. California won the heat as the other four boats moved on to the afternoon repechage. The Bears then finished fourth in the repechage and will race in the third and fourth level semifinal on Saturday.

Brown will return on Saturday for the IRA semifinals, starting with varsity at 11:36 AM (EST). The second varsity will race at 12:12 PM (EST), followed by the third varsity 12:36 PM (EST) and the varsity four at 1:50 or 2:00 PM.

Friday Morning Heats
Varsity – Heat 4
1          HARVARD - 5:40.407
2          BROWN - 5:43.363
3          NAVY - 5:45.688
4          G WASHINGTON - 5:45.742
5          COLGATE - 5:54.607
6          DREXEL - 6:08.250

Second Varsity – Heat 4
1          BROWN - 5:46.784
2          PRINCETON - 5:49.259
3          CORNELL - 5:59.176
4          STANFORD - 6:00.674
5          G WASHINGTON - 6:01.989
6          UCSD - 6:11.686

Third Varsity – Heat 3
1          PRINCETON - 5:48.633
2          BROWN - 5:50.291
3          SYRACUSE - 5:59.830
4          G WASHINGTON - 6:16.118
5          UCSD - 6:24.203

Varsity Four – Heat 2
1          CALIFORNIA - 6:29.791
2          MIT - 6:33.091
3          NAVY - 6:36.334
4          DARTMOUTH - 6:39.564
5          BROWN - 6:49.854

Afternoon Repechage
Varsity Four – Repechage 3
1          GEORGETOWN - 6:35.045
2          MARIST - 6:36.777
3          OK CITY - 6:43.340
4          BROWN - 6:49.388