6/2/2011 – Off to the IRA

Folks …

The 109th IRA regatta will be held on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., starting the morning of Thursday, June 2 and concluding on Saturday, June 4. The Blue Crews, HW and LW, were selected and will be there with full squads.

Three weeks after a bronze-medal finish at the Eastern Sprints, the Yale lightweight varsity eight travels to Camden, N.J. Competing for the national title will be the top seven finishers from the Eastern Sprints as well as Mercyhurst, the top lightweight crew at the Dad Vail Regatta. At the Sprints, Yale led with 750 meters remaining in the race before being passed by Harvard and Dartmouth.
In order to reach the grand final and earn the right to race for the national title, Yale must finish in the top three of its heat, which will be held at 7:33 a.m. on Saturday. The Bulldogs will race Dartmouth, Navy, and Columbia. Three crews will also advance from the 7:21 a.m. heat of Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Mercyhurst College [Erie, PA]. Should Yale advance, the grand final will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Last year’s Yale varsity eight placed third at Eastern Sprints and fourth at IRA’s. The Bulldogs will be looking to improve on last year’s IRA performance, in which they finished about a length behind national champion Princeton. In 2010 the Navy LWs improved on their EARC finish and rowed a spectacular race to take the national championship silver medals.

In addition to the varsity eight, the Yale lightweights will field a pair of coxed fours at IRA’s. One four will race in the new Lightweight Four event, which will feature five crews in a final-only affair on Saturday at 8:21 a.m. The Bulldogs will face crews from Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Navy.

Yale’s other four will race in the Open Fours, a heavyweight event in which in crew must feature at least one freshman and at least one upperclassman oarsman. The open four will open its regatta in a Thursday heat at 10:30 a.m. One crew will advance from Yale’s heat of four, while the other three crews will be sent to the Repechage. The Bulldogs will race Harvard, Cornell and Brown. No word whether Navy LWs will be represented in either Open 4+ or Varsity 4+. Navy will be in Heat 1 competing with Penn, Cal, Wisco and Washington.

The Yale Heavyweight crew team will row in its last races of the year this weekend at the 2011 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. Four Yale crews will race against the top finishers they saw at the Eastern Sprints back on May 15 as well as some of the best teams on the West Coast.

Kicking off the weekend will be the Yale varsity eight once again next to long-time rival Harvard. The two crews battled over four miles of river in the 146th Harvard-Yale Regatta last weekend, and this Thursday Yale will be in Lane 2, Harvard in Lane 3 in the third of three varsity heats held at 8:30 a.m. Yale’s will be an all-Ivy heat with Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth and Penn also vying for a spot in the final. If the Bulldogs can finish in the top two spots they will proceed straight to Friday’s semifinal; if not, they will compete in one of the afternoon’s Repechage races at 2:00 or 2:15 p.m. where they must place in the top three to advance. Navy will be in Heat 2 matching up against Cal, Wisco, BU, Georgetown and UCSD.

The Yale second varsity eight races next at 9:00 a.m. Here it is three to final as Yale in Lane 2 takes on UCSD, Harvard, Syracuse and Dartmouth. The 2V Repechage will be held at 2:30 p.m., where the top three will advance to Friday’s semifinal. Navy will be in Heat 3 facing Wisco, Cal, Cornell, and Gonzaga.

Shortly thereafter the Yale freshman eight races in Lane 5 against Penn, Wisconsin, Washington, Princeton and Gonzaga in the event’s first heat at 9:30 a.m. Two will advance to the semifinals, the rest will race in the Repechages at 2:45 and 3:00 p.m. where the top three go to the semifinals. Navy will be in Heat 3 contesting Harvard, Brown, Syracuse, Dartmouth and UCSD.

Rounding out the morning will be the varsity four. Yale will race in Lane 5 of the last heat at 11:30 a.m. against Navy, Wisconsin and Hobart. Two will advance to the semifinals, the rest go to the reps at 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. where it will be two to the semifinals.

Last year the Yale varsity eight had a great heat on the first day of racing. Having trained for the four-mile Harvard-Yale race for two weeks, the Bulldogs showed great strength over 2,000 meters and posted a time of 5:33.984 to avoid the rep and go straight to Friday’s semifinals. In the same heat Yale was only about two seconds behind the Cal crew (5:31.944) that would go on to win the championship.

Navy’s varsity boat won the third level final at last year’s IRA National Championships, finishing 13th overall. The second varsity boat took 14th overall. The Mids’ freshman boat had the best finish at the championships as it advanced to the petite final where it placed fourth, taking 10th overall.
The varsity four boat placed fifth in the third level final and the open four boat, consisting of members of both the heavyweight and lightweight teams, took fourth in the third level final.

This year Yale head coach Steve Gladstone returns to the IRA regatta as a coach for the first time since 2008 when he was at the helm of the Cal HWs. Gladstone’s Cal crews medalled at the IRA regatta 11 times in his 12 seasons since 1997 (five gold and six bronze), an unprecedented achievement in the history of the championship. All told his crews have won 11 IRA championships, which ties him with Charles “Pop” Courtney of Cornell (1901-15) for the most varsity eight titles in the history of collegiate rowing.

Navy head coach Rick Clothier,who is in his 37th season leading the Mids, offered his take on this weekend’s IRA National Championship.”We’re all excited to be here at the IRA Championships and look forward to racing. We might face some tough weather conditions, but we’ll see what happens.”

Over his coaching career at Navy, Clothier’s varsity eight has won three championships and finished second five times. The Mids also won the Jim Ten Eyck Trophy for overall team performance seven times.

A live video stream of this year’s regatta will be available at http://crew.princeton.edu/content/live_video. Four cameras – two on the water, one on top of the Camden County Boathouse and one at the finish line – will be providing live coverage of every race over all three days. Live audio is also available at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ecac.portal# or over the phone at (508) 534-7389.

A complete schedule of Friday racing [HW qualifying heats and Repechage — 1V8+, 2V8+, 1F8+, Open 4+ and V4+] including lane assignments can be found at http://www.row2k.com/ira/2011/2011_IRA_Heat_Sheet.pdf

Full articles from Navy and Yale Sports are included below. Be sure to check out the first of Row2k’s great articles and perspective on the IRAs, also in full below.

GO BLUE … Be One With The Boat!

Cheers!

Best Regards,

Coach, TB406 and Layla Gaga

From Yale Sports:

Lightweights to Race at IRA Nationals Championships

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Three weeks after a bronze-medal finish at the Eastern Sprints, the Yale lightweight varsity eight travels to the IRA National Championship on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. Competing for the national title will be the top seven finishers from the Eastern Sprints as well as Mercyhurst, the top lightweight crew at the Dad Vail Regatta. At the Sprints, Yale led with 750 meters remaining in the race before being passed by Harvard and Dartmouth.
In order to reach the grand final and earn the right to race for the national title, Yale must finish in the top three of its heat, which will be held at 7:33 a.m. on Saturday. The Bulldogs will race Dartmouth, Navy, and Columbia. Three crews will also advance from the 7:21 a.m. heat of Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Mercyhurst. Should Yale advance, the grand final will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Yale returns three members—juniors Greg Hausheer and seniors Andrew Hakanson and William Zeng—from last year’s varsity eight, which placed third at Eastern Sprints and fourth at IRA’s. The Bulldogs will be looking to improve on last year’s IRA performance, in which they finished about a length behind national champion Princeton.

In addition to the varsity eight, the lightweights will field a pair of coxed fours at IRA’s. One four will race in the new Lightweight Four event, which will feature five crews in a final-only affair on Saturday at 8:21 a.m. The Bulldogs will face crews from Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Navy.

A live video stream of this year’s regatta will be available online. Four cameras – two on the water, one on top of the Camden County Boathouse and one at the finish line – will be providing live coverage of every race over all three days. Live audio is also available here or over the phone at (508) 534-7389. Additionally, for those who can make it to race the ECAC will be setting up two wi-if hotspots in the Alumni Tent Village. Spectators with laptop computers or other web-enabled devices will be able to access the live video stream (and see the first 1,500 meters of the race) with an authorized link.

Regatta Broadcast Schedule

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Heavyweight Men’s Heats: 8:00 AM – 11:55 AM

Repechages: 2:00 PM – 3:55 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011

Lightweight Women’s Heats: 8:30 AM – 9:25 AM

Heavyweight Men’s Semifinals: 9:30 AM – 12:40 PM

Lightweight Women’s Repechages: 12:45 PM – 1:10 PM

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Alumni Race: 7:00 AM

Lightweight Men’s Heats: 7:20 AM – 7:40 AM

All Finals: 7:45 AM – 12:30 PM

From Yale Sports:

Heavyweights Head to IRA National Championships

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale Heavyweight crew team will row in its last races of the year this weekend at the 2011 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. The 109th IRA regatta will be held on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., starting the morning of Thursday, June 2 and concluding on Saturday, June 4. Four Yale crews will race against the top finishers they saw at the Eastern Sprints back on May 15 as well as some of the best teams on the West Coast.
Kicking off the weekend will be the Yale varsity eight once again next to long-time rival Harvard. The two crews battled over four miles of river in the 146th Harvard-Yale Regatta last weekend, and this Thursday Yale will be in Lane 2, Harvard in Lane 3 in the third of three varsity heats held at 8:30 a.m. Yale’s will be an all-Ivy heat with Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth and Penn also vying for a spot in the final. If the Bulldogs can finish in the top two spots they will proceed straight to Friday’s semifinal; if not, they will compete in one of the afternoon’s Repechage races at 2:00 or 2:15 p.m. where they must place in the top three to advance.

This year head coach Steve Gladstone returns to the IRA regatta as a coach for the first time since 2008 when he was at the helm of the Cal heavyweight crew team. Gladstone’s Cal crews medalled at the IRA regatta 11 times in his 12 seasons since 1997 (five gold and six bronze), an unprecedented achievement in the history of the championship. All told his crews have won 11 IRA championships, which ties him with Charles “Pop” Courtney of Cornell (1901-15) for the most varsity eight titles in the history of collegiate rowing.

Regatta Broadcast Schedule

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Heavyweight Men’s Heats: 8:00 AM – 11:55 AM

Repechages: 2:00 PM – 3:55 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011

Lightweight Women’s Heats: 8:30 AM – 9:25 AM

Heavyweight Men’s Semifinals: 9:30 AM – 12:40 PM

Lightweight Women’s Repechages: 12:45 PM – 1:10 PM

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Alumni Race: 7:00 AM

Lightweight Men’s Heats: 7:20 AM – 7:40 AM

All Finals: 7:45 AM – 12:30 PM

From Navy Sports:

Heavyweight Rowing Begins IRA National Championships on Thursday

June 1, 2011

ANNAPOLIS, MD. – The Navy heavyweight rowing team will wrap up its 2011 season this week with the IRA National Championships on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. The 109th annual event will begin on Thursday and run through Saturday.

The first heats of the 2011 IRA Championships will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday. Live audio and video for all three days of the championships will be available, for more information, click here .

About the IRA National Championships
The IRA Championships consists of heats, Repechage (second chance races), semifinals and finals. In the varsity eight, freshman eight and varsity four heats, the two fastest crews advance to the semifinal races. The top three crews in the second varsity eight and open eight heats advance to the semifinals. The remaining boats are drop to the Repechage race, where the top three boats will gain entry back into the semifinals. The crews outside the top three Will Race in the third final. In the semis, the top three crews advance to the six-boat grand final, while the remaining boats will compete in the petite final.

Last Year at the IRA National Championships
Navy’s varsity boat won the third level final at last year’s IRA National Championships, finishing 13th overall. The second varsity boat took 14th overall. The Mids’ freshman boat had the best finish at the championships as it advanced to the petite final where it placed fourth, taking 10th overall.

The varsity four boat placed fifth in the third level final and the open four boat, consisting of members of both the heavyweight and lightweight teams, took fourth in the third level final.

Quoting the Coach
Head coach Rick Clothier’s take on this weekend’s IRA National Championship…
“We’re all excited to be here at the IRA Championships and look forward to racing. We might face some tough weather conditions, but we’ll see what happens.”

From Row2k:

IRA 2011: Running with the Big Dogs

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
oli rosenbladt/row2k

Normally, you would start a preview of a championship race with a nod at the defending champions; in 2010, Cal upended both the predictions and a season of frustration against Washington with a perfectly executed 2000 meters to upset the Huskies and claim the national championship. This season has seen a very similar storyline, with UW having the measure of Cal at every point, although the margins have been steadily shrinking; the Cal-UW dual on the Montlake Cut went to Washington by almost a length, but that margin was only 4 seats three weeks later at the Pac-10 championships. If anything, the margins between these two teams have been much tighter this year; UW won the Pac-10s by open water in 2010.
Washington is a justified favorite heading into the 2011 IRA, and surely the Huskies will have learned something from the past 12 months.

Both Cal and UW were a over length of open water ahead of the field in the IRA Grand Final last year, but racing in the east has tightened up this year and while it’s hard to see a crew other than Washington or Cal winning the event, you might see any of a handful of crews challenging the west coast teams for medals and placings.

The eastern pack is led by Harvard who have displayed as dominant a team season as anyone; the Crimson are a 2nd place in the 3V at Sprints removed from perfect seasons in their heavyweight eights, all five of them. The Harvard Varsity has weathered all challenges this season, but it has not been a cakewalk; close races to Brown and Princeton during the regular season and a 6-seat win at Sprints actually say less about Harvard’s speed than the overall quality of crews in the east this year.

A rejuvenated Princeton squad will look to mix it up; if the Tigers can pick up a little more speed they could also crack the medals. Ditto for Wisconsin, a close third at Sprints, and Brown, just a second behind the Badgers in Worcester.

The opening heats at IRA have Washington/Brown in heat 1, Cal/Wisconsin in heat 2 and Harvard/Princeton in heat 3 as the seeded pairings in the middle of the course, with two to progress to the semi in each heat. We’ve seen upsets here in the past, and the crews to watch are a strong unit from Syracuse in the UW/Brown race, BU, who stumbled at Sprints after a very strong regular season and will look to regroup, in the Cal/Wisconsin race, and Yale, making progress under new head coach Steve Gladstone, with Harvard/Princeton. The Harvard-Yale rematch takes place just 5 days after Harvard took the annual 4-mile contest between the schools by 14 seconds.

The JV eight also sees Washington at the top of the field, and deep teams make for fantastic speed in this event, as witnessed last year when the UW and Brown JVs annihilated the course record in their final. This year, Washington is probably head and shoulders above the field, as the Huskies won Pac-10s by a full 11 seconds ahead of Cal, in a time that would have placed them 3rd in the Varsity Eight final.

The stiffest challenge to the Huskies will come from an undefeated Harvard 2V, one-length winners over Wisconsin at Sprints. Wisconsin, Cal, surprise Eastern Sprints medalists Syracuse and Princeton make up the remainder of the seeded crews; as with the Varsity, the top two crews in each of three heats move directly on to the semi.

Three outstanding crews make up the leaders in the Men’s Freshman Eight, with Pac-10 champs Cal, Eastern Sprints champs Harvard and Washington seeded at the top. Princeton, Navy and Cornell make up the other seeded crews in the event. (Absent from the field are the frosh from Northeastern, bronze medalists at Sprints; frosh entries at the IRA are contingent upon the V8 qualifying, which the NU V8 did not do.)

In the Men’s Open and Varsity Fours, deep teams make up the likely contenders, with Harvard, Washington, Cal and Wisconsin having traditionally had the greatest success in the smaller boats.

Happily, the IRA is seeing some good growth in the lightweight events this year, with the addition of the Men’s Lightweight Four and fuller entries in the Men’s & Women’s Lightweight eights.

The Men’s Lightweight Eight sees Harvard roaring into the IRA after a perfect season and a win at Sprints. Surprise Sprints runners-up Dartmouth, Yale and defending champs Princeton are in the mix, but this seems to be Harvard’s battle to lose.

Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Navy and Yale will contest the inaugural Light Men’s Four. Given the depth of all four teams, expect excellent racing here as well.

The Women’s Lightweight Eight has a new look this year, with both the defending champs from Stanford and the standard-setting lightweights from Wisconsin looking up at top-ranked Princeton this year. All of these crews have raced each other during the year, with the Princeton lights owning solid victories over each of their challengers. That said, the IRA is where the upsets happen (witness Bucknell’s win in 2007 or Stanford’s victory last year), and this event is likely to come down to the last half of the final to determine the 2011 champions.

In the Light Women’s Four, surprise champs Loyola/Maryland are making a return trip to Camden, along with entries from Tulsa, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Wisconsin and Radcliffe.