Men’s Crew Finishes Sixth in Team Points at IRA National Championship

Sunday, June 2

Gold River, CA

All Day

Brown University

IRA Championship (Sun)

Men’s Crew Finishes Sixth in Team Points at IRA National Championship

6/2/2019 6:01:00 PM | Men's Crew

Results Photo Gallery

Bears win Chapman Trophy as Most Improved Team

GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The Brown University men's crew placed seventh in the varsity event and finished sixth in overall team points as the Bears wrapped up the three-day IRA National Championship regatta Sunday at Lake Natoma.

Brown's varsity boat closed the weekend with a victory in the petite final, while the second and third varsity boats both reached the grand finals. Brown finished sixth overall in the Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy standings, awarded to the school with the most team points, one spot better than last season. In addition, Brown was awarded the Clayton Chapman Trophy as the most improved team, awarded annually to the school that has generated the greatest increase in total points from the previous championship regatta.

Yale captured the varsity grand final for its third straight national title and Washington finished first overall in team points.

"The varsity came away yesterday and Northeastern handed them a strong loss into the petite final, and I was pleased that they bounced back," said head coach Paul Cooke. "It's not an easy thing to do. All the guys have worked really hard, and I thought they did a good job of putting their bow in front."

The first varsity closed the morning with a victory in the petite final for seventh overall in the national standings. Brown and Boston University were side-by-side at the 500-meter mark, but the Bears made a move in the second quarter of the race, and jumped out to a three-seat advantage at the midway mark. The Terriers answered with a charge during the third 500, but the Bears held strong for the win at 5:42.89.

"We felt a responsibility to ourselves to execute the race we knew we could, and felt a responsibility for the team as well, so we wanted to finish as high as possible to reflect how hard the team has worked," said senior co-captain Rufus Biggs. "There were a lot of emotions today, and I think we channeled them the right way."

"You have to give credit where credit is due, to Northeastern yesterday, they pulled out a really big second half of the race," said Thomas Phelps, who stroked the varsity boat. "We didn't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We knew we had to turn it around, just go as fast as we could this morning, race our best race, and win to do better in team points than last year."

The second varsity raced in the grand final along with Harvard, Cal, Yale, Washington and Princeton. California raced out to an early lead and moved up to open water at the midway mark. Brown faced a three-seat deficit behind Princeton for fifth place at 1,000 meters, but then used a strong push in the final 750 meters, as the Bears passed Princeton for fifth overall.

The Bears faced off against Yale, Washington, Harvard, Princeton and Cal in the third varsity grand final. Washington and Yale moved out ahead of the pack before the Huskies established a seven-seat advantage for first place. Brown and California battled for fifth place just after the halfway point, and the two crews were nearly level the rest of the way, as the Bears crossed in sixth at 5:51.91. The Bears bested their entry seed by five spots.

Brown opened the morning with the varsity four as the Bears claimed fourth in the third-level final. Jacksonville and Oklahoma City moved out in front at 500 meters, while Brown fought Wisconsin for third place. Brown started to challenge Wisconsin with 750 meters remaining, but the Badgers held off the attack down the stretch, and the Bears edged Northeastern and Drexel at 6:39.97.

"It was a good strong performance all the way around," said Cooke. "The third varsity's improvement all the way around has been impressive, and those guys put themselves in the grand finals, and with the JV race, to put themselves in front of Princeton for the fourth time was a really important victory within the race."

Sunday Results
Varsity – Petite Final
1          BROWN - 5:42.892
2          BOSTON UNIV - 5:44.207
3          SYRACUSE - 5:44.680
4          STANFORD - 5:46.763
5          DARTMOUTH - 5:46.767
6          CORNELL - 5:48.430

Second Varsity – Grand Final
1          CALIFORNIA - 5:38.205
2          WASHINGTON - 5:40.347
3          YALE - 5:42.567
4          HARVARD - 5:42.775
5          BROWN - 5:45.612
6          PRINCETN - 5:45.932

Third Varsity – Grand Final
1          WASHINGTON - 5:43.668
2          YALE - 5:46.083
3          HARVARD - 5:47.478
4          PRINCETON - 5:47.655
5          CALIFORNIA - 5:51.643
6          BROWN - 5:51.910

Varsity Four – Third Final
1          OK CITY - 6:36.266
2          JACKSONVILLE - 6:37.323
3          WISCONSIN - 6:38.823
4          BROWN - 6:39.976
5          NORTHEASTERN - 6:41.763
6          DREXEL - 6:42.463

Team Championship Points
Washington – 207
Yale – 205
California – 189
Harvard – 188
Princeton – 162
Brown – 155
Northeastern 146
Boston U. – 136
Syracuse – 112
Dartmouth – 105
Navy – 88
Cornell – 81
Wisconsin – 63
Stanford – 55
George Washington – 42
Columbia – 40
Oregon State – 31
Penn – 22
Hobart – 11
Drexel – 9
Colgate – 5
FIT – 0
Santa Clara – 0
San Diego – 0

Lineups
1V: C. Ryan Williams, 8. Thomas Phelps, 7. Alex Miklasevich, 6. Rufus Biggs, 5. Henry Hollingsworth, 4. Finn Jenkins, 3. Jack Abeel, 2. Will Legenzowski, 1. Alex Kelly

2V: C. Lambert Li, 8. Gus Hirschfeld, 7. Ben Olsen, 6. Andy Provost, 5. Gus Rodriguez, 4. Daniel Boasberg, 3. Dylan Norris, 2. Matias Hoite, 1. Oscar Bird

3V: C. Orly Mansbach, 8. Kai Hoite, 7. Jaap de Jong, 6. Hugh Jia, 5. Nathan Manrique, 4. Lachlan MacKenzie, 3. Brian Mundelius, 2. Benjamin Shore, 1. Malcolm Nash

V4: C. Lauren Parker, 4. Max Goldman, 3. Aleksa Tosic, 2. Michael Cuellar, 1. John Norton