MERCER PARK, New Jersey - The Intercollegiate Rowing (IRA) National Championship Regatta began today with Marist College competing in the varsity four category. This was the most well attended event of the regatta with 28 teams competing. Marist is competing against powerhouse teams from across the nation like University of Washington, California and many of the Ivy League schools.
The day started with the heats around 11 a.m. Marist was entered against Temple, Drexel, MIT, Holy Cross, Cornell and Fairfield. With only the 1st crew going straight to the semifinals, the heats were tight at the top and bottom with crews fighting for placement in afternoon reps as well as the top slots.
Holy Cross was slated as the team to beat before the race and didn't disappoint, blasting off the line with a blazing start they cleared most of the field in the first 500 meters. MIT, and Cornell also had quick starts with the rest of the field moving even through the first 500.
Marist locked into a solid rhythm at the 400 meter mark and pulled even with most of the field. At 750 meters in, the Red Foxes made their first big move and walked away from Drexel and Temple leaving them with the remainder of the pack and walking on Cornell.
Meanwhile, MIT was making a huge statement in their outside lane one dominating the middle of the race and advancing on the speedy Holy Cross crew. With 500 meters to go the placing had spaced out, Holy Cross got passed by a strong closing MIT crew, Cornell remained in 3rd, with Marist closing down 4th place six seconds back and beating Temple, Drexel, and Fairfield.
This placing advanced the Marist Crew to the afternoon repechage. These last chance races determine who makes the cut for the various levels of semifinals. Marist left the dock at around 2:30 p.m. to race Harvard, Dartmouth, Marietta, Jacksonville and Santa Clara.
The crew had a rocky start missing a stroke during their starting sequence and dropping almost a full boat length behind the rest of the crews in the first 10 strokes. The team pulled back together with 400m down and recommitted to their solid rhythm. Making a solid statement in the 2nd 500m the Marist boat tracked down Santa Clara.
Meanwhile Harvard and Marrietta were battling at the front of the pack stretching out the race considerably. Marist did solid work in the middle 1000m working hard to chase down boats that had them in a controlling position. With 500m to go they had pulled back into connection with Dartmouth and Jacksonville and opened an early sprint to move back into the fleet.
With 200m to go the crew opened a furious sprint at 43 strokes per minute to finish out the race. The final result was a close photo finish with Jacksonville, with Marist beating them out by just 0.07 of a second to take 4th place. The crew just missed Dartmouth by one second and lost to front runners Harvard and Marietta.
The two outings today secured the Marist team's position in the C/D semifinals for tomorrow to take place at around 11 a.m. These semis will determine who advances to the 3rd final or 4th final for the last day of racing on Sunday. The crew will be racing against Milwaukee SOE, Yale, Stanford, Navy, and Brown.
Marist Rowing came to the IRA regatta with the goal of showing their speed as a team and creating a stepping stone for future Marist crews. With solid performances against the fastest crews in the nation the Red Foxes look primed to attack a fast semifinal tomorrow. Fans can follow live broadcasting of the races on Row2k.com.
