2013 IRA National Championship Regatta: Recap and Review

Men's Varsity 8 Grand Final finish IRAs 2013

Varsity Eights
As USRowing quipped, it was a good day to be a Husky in Sacramento—especially a Washington Husky. Not that we'd ever be the types to say we told you so, but our picks for the men's varsity eight turned out as we'd expected, with Washington capping off another undefeated season with a third-straight IRA title. Not far off the pace were the early leaders, Harvard—smooth and composed, but perhaps without the level of horsepower that their West Coast rivals brought to the table. Brown also had an outstanding regatta, as Paul Cooke and new assistant coach Graham Willoughby's crews made the podium in all three eights events—while the varsity may have gotten off to a slow start compared to the rest of the field, their closing speed saw them overtake Northeastern in the final 250m to claim the bronze.




Second Varsity Eight
The effects of the new freshman rule were most obvious in the men's second varsity eight event at IRAs, which featured some of the closest racing at the regatta, with a number of frosh athletes on board. The results very nearly reflected our predictions, with Washington once again winning it all, though Cal slipped to third behind another hard-charging crew from Brown (we had picked Cal for silver, Brown for bronze). The same pattern repeated several times over the course of the day—both the Brown men's and women's programs know how to sprint!


Frosh Eight
Given the number of freshmen racing up in the varsity events, the frosh field wasn't as deep as in previous years, but still saw a very close contest for second and third, behind another dominant Washington crew. Brown (our pick for third) again came through in the final 500m to claim the silver ahead of Cal, as the Golden Bears had to throw everything in to hold off an impressive crew from Cornell for the bronze. Harvard, our pick for silver, faded to fifth, one length back of Cornell.


Women's Lightweight Eight
Okay—so we picked Radcliffe to win this year. But, we did say that it's never safe to count out Stanford at the national championships—especially when they enter the race as the underdog! The Cardinal made it a four-peat with an emphatic win over No. 1 Radcliffe, with the Black and White taking second ahead of Wisconsin.


Men's Lightweight Eight
The men's lightweight events were all Crimson, as Harvard won both the eight and the four convincingly. Take a minute to appreciate the feat that Harvard has accomplished over the past three seasons—in an event where parity is the name of the game, the Crimson have suffered only one loss in three years, and that by roughly one foot in the grand final at the 2011 IRA Regatta. Truly an impressive achievement for Charley Butt's program.



As we expected, Yale took the silver, though our pick for bronze, Dartmouth, couldn't hold off a determined Columbia crew for the final place on the podium. A fantastic performance for the Lions, who earned their first IRA medal since 2003.

@HarvardRowing LWT8 receiving the #IRA trophy

Team Performances
Not only did Washington win their third straight varsity eight title—the Huskies' second straight sweep of the IRA Regatta marked their seventh straight Ten Eyck championship for team points.

Also worthy of note (and perhaps a preview of things to come), the Huskies from Northeastern had an outstanding trip, placing both their varsity and second varsity eights in the grand finals for the first time since 2005. The varsity eight only narrowly missed a medal (less than 0.2 seconds behind Brown), and the entire squad that came west for the regatta will only see two seniors graduate this year—look out for Northeastern in 2014.

@gonumrowing hoisting the trophy for most improved team overall #iras

Still to come: Our recap and review of the NCAA Championships in 'Windy Indy.'

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s up before 4:30am. So, wh
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

Image
This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor
Read more