CHERRY HILL, NJ - On Sunday, the Marist Men's Rowing Team competed in the 2025 National Invitational Rowing Championships Regatta, the team's conference championship. The event was held on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, MA, and contested by 18 teams over five categories. The weather was clear and sunny with winds starting light and building throughout the day to a 10-12mph quartering tailwind. This made conditions on the water flat in the first 1000m and somewhat rougher and choppier in the latter 1000m of the 2 km race course. Marist was entered in five events: the varsity four and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th varsity eights.
 
The Varsity Four consisted of Sam Carine (cox), Mason Lockowitz (stroke), Caden Todd (3), Joe Kraus (2), and Zachary Schwarz (bow). The V4+ faced off in their heat against Williams, Hobart, Colby, UNH B, and Rochester B. Marist got off to an early lead alongside the crews from Hobart and Williams. The crew worked hard in the middle 1000m of the race course but made a few technical errors and fell behind those two crews while pushing away from the crew from Colby. The race result was a 3rd place in a time of 7:07, which positioned Marist in the petite final for the afternoon—in the final, Marist faced off against Colby again as well as Trinity, Mass Maritime, Skidmore, and Coast Guard. Marist had a smoother start in this race and pushed away from the Colby Crew to take 1st at 7:11.9. This result netted them an overall 7th position out of 16 crews.
 
The 4th Varsity Eight consisted of Liam Ventresca (cox), Evan Brown (stroke), Noah Wright (7), Peter Martinich (6), Mark Carguello (5), Jesse Hinkle (4), Matteo Spain (3), Spencer Crum (2), Ethan King (bow). This crew raced in a straight final against six other crews from Tufts, Williams, Wesleyan, Trinity, Hobart, and Bates. Unfortunately, the crew suffered alignment issues at the start, and by the time they got their boat pointed, they had dropped considerably from the rest of the pack of crews. Marist was able to come back and defeat the crew from Bates but lost to all others with a time of 6:17 to take 6th place of 7 in the final and overall.
 
The 3rd Varsity Eight consisted of Evie Disque (cox), Jack Taddei (stroke), Dylan Kresge (7), Mason Roy (6), Nolan Keane (5), Nicholas Fracasso (4), Matthias Topping (3), Dante Karaiskos (2), Drew Ngo (bow). The 3V8 faced Trinity, Williams, Bates, WPI, and Coast Guard in their heat and placed 2nd to Trinity in a time of 6:03.1. This result put them in the Grand Final event in the afternoon, where they faced Wesleyan, Hobart, Tufts, Williams, and Trinity. Marist rowed a thrilling race going stroke for stroke with Tufts after Wesleyan and Hobart pulled away in the first two positions and sprinted back into contention for the podium in the final moments, missing 3rd by just 0.6 of a second. The boat placed 4th at 5:59.8, securing a ranking of 4th of 12 crews at the event.
 
The 2nd Varsity Eight consisted of Tessa Kurtzman (cox), Jackson Bower (stroke), Adam Wittman (7), Ian Sondhof (6), Nolan Libby (5), Connor Tandy (4), Finn Lyons (3), Liam Klemm (2), and Holden Kopscik (bow). The 2V8 started the day with a 3rd place finish in the heats against Hobart, Wesleyan, Embry Riddle, and Skidmore in a time of 6:03. This sent the crew to the petite final in the afternoon against Colby, MIT, WPI, Coast Guard, and Embry Riddle. Marist took an early lead in the final and cruised to a 1st place finish at 6:02.4 to place 7th in the regatta of 16 crews.
 
The Marist Varsity Eight consisted of Matthew Wright (cox), Tristan Wistuba (stroke), James Hadjandreas (7), Will Shockley (6), Reed Livingston (5), Matthew Roscoe (4), Austin Thomas (3), Charlie Latimer (2), and Thomas Graves (Bow). The V8 raced a brutal heat, aiming for grand final contention, but could not stop Williams and Wesleyan. The crew pulled a time of 5:51.5 behind those two programs, beating Colby, Hamilton, and Conn College. In the petite final, Marist faced off against Hobart, Colby, Coast Guard, Vassar, and Embry-Riddle. The Red Foxes fought with Hobart the whole course, with the Statesmen taking a full-length lead with 500m to go, but Marist returned with a furious sprint in the final meters to finish with only three seats between them and 1 second. The final result was 2nd for Marist in that race with a time of 5:52.9 and 8th overall at the regatta out of 18 teams.
 
Coach's Comments: "The NIRC was more competitive this year than ever, with highly motivated D3 crews competing for IRA AQs alongside D1 teams in the same position. The heats and finals were a flurry of activity and hard-fought battles all down the line. Marist was an underdog crew here for qualification in 2025 with a very young crew of primarily freshmen and sophomores, which was part of what informed our decision to race the Dad Vail Regatta in the two days before our conference championship. Overall, the weekend was a massive success with our crews getting opportunities for close and highly competitive racing, learning how to execute professionally and competently under pressure and maximal effort. We believe the crew is excellently positioned for an explosion of growth in speed in the coming seasons, and we're excited to capitalize on the fantastic experience earned this season. Go Red Foxes!
 
Members of the Marist Varsity Eight will be preparing over the coming weeks to represent Marist at the IRA National Championship Regatta in the Varsity Hwt Four event. That event will take place in Cherry Hill, NJ, at the Cooper River Race Course from May 30th to June 1st 
 
Check out the Marist Rowing Website at this link for complete race results and Coach's Recap Video.