CHERRY HILL, NJ -The Marist Men's Rowing Team competed this weekend at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta. Marist entered the Men's Varsity Fours, the most significant event at the regatta, with 38 entries from schools all around the country. The IRA took place over two days, on May 30 and 31, with a Time Trial race and Semi-Final Races on Friday, May 30th, and Semi-Final Races on Saturday, May 31st.

The Marist Crew attending the event represented the top four athletes on the Marist Rowing Team, who came out of the Marist Varsity Eight and competed during the regular season. The crew consisted of Evie Disque (coxswain), Will Shockley (stroke), Thomas Graves (3), Reed Livingston (2), and Charlie Latimer (bow). Also in attendance at the event were spare rowers Tristan Wistuba (stroke side) and Austin Thomas (bow side).

Friday's racing took place in near-ideal conditions, with partly cloudy skies, light and variable crosswinds from the southwest, and temperatures in the mid-to-high 70s.  The first race of the day was the time trial event, where each boat started at an equal distance from the others, allowing them to post their best time on the course. The top 18 crews would advance from the Time Trial to the top A/B/C Semi-Finals, with the remaining crews moving to the D/E or F/G finals. Marist placed 11th in the time trial with a time of 6:11.1, an extremely close result, and within 3 seconds of 10 other crews! This result seeded Marist in the 2nd A/B/C final, where the top two crews would proceed to the grand final, the next two to the petite final, and the final two to the 3rd level final. 

In the semi-final, Marist faced the University of California (Berkley), University of San Diego, Brown University, Stetson University, and St Joe's University. Marist had a strong start, moving out early from the start line behind Cal but hanging with St. Joe's and Stetson. In the first 500m, Joe's and Stetson made a push, and Brown also made a big move to get up on Marist. Marist established a consistent rhythm throughout the piece, gradually moving up the field. In the middle 1000m, they took back two seats from both Joe's and Brown and began to walk away from San Diego. With 700m to go, Marist looked to be in a commanding 2nd position, but Brown, Joe's, and USD all made big moves, and with 500m left, it was all four of the crews even across to make the grand final. Marist was unable to stay with the field and faded over the final meters, ultimately placing 5th, as USD, Joe, and Brown in front but remained ahead of Stetson. This result sent Marist to the 3rd-level final on Saturday, where they would face Cornell, Stetson, Stanford, FIT, and Oklahoma City.

Saturday's Conditions were very different after a large storm passed through, with colder temperatures in the 60s, cloud cover, and a strong westerly wind creating tailwind conditions on the race course, accompanied by white-capping waves in the final meters. Marist stepped out of the gate with a lot of power and was already up 2 to 3 seats on Cornell and OKC after the starting strokes. The Red Foxes ran four across against Stetson, Stanford, and FIT for the next 500m before Marist made a nice move to pull out roughly 1 deck or 1.5 seats over the other crews. In the 3rd 500m, the crew from Stetson came on strong. Marist made a push to keep ahead, and together, the two crews pulled gradually ahead of Stanford and FIT. Marist made another move to strike Stetson at the 1300m mark and was able to take another few seats to lengthen their lead to 2-3 seats. In the final meters, Marist executed a far better sprint than the previous day, ramping up the stroke rate and charging to the line neck and neck with Stetson in very challenging conditions. At the finish line, it was Marist with the win in a time of 6:27.4, ahead of Stetson by 2 seconds and the other crews by even greater margins.

This final result in the 3rd level final secured the Marist crew a final placing of 13th in the varsity four event, an improvement of 11 places from last year's 24th. This race concluded the 2025 campaign for the Marist Men's Rowing Team. Many team members will be competing with clubs and development teams over the summer, and the crew will return to campus to start training for the 2026 campaign at the beginning of September.

Coach's Comments: "The coaching staff is incredibly proud of the development that happened on the men's rowing team this spring. The team this year was deeper and stronger in nearly all areas and began to address new areas of opportunity for improvement, pushing one another to improve continually. Our varsity four at the IRA represented a lot of this fresh new talent, as well as some wisdom from our one senior, Thomas Graves. We are super excited about what the coming years have to offer, and the team is ideally positioned to grow and continue its transformation in the 2026 season. GO, RED FOXES!!!" 
-Campbell Woods, Head Coach Men's Rowing