SACRAMENTO, California - The Marist Men's Rowing Team Varsity Four opened racing on Friday at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta. Marist competed in the Time Trial for the Varsity Four at 11:30am and then in the a/b/c semi finals at 4:08pm. Racing took place over a 2000m stretch of Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, CA.
The Marist Varsity Four consisted of Tessa Kurtzman (cox), Will Shockley (stroke), Nicholas Scarano (3), Ryan Tuttle (2), and Charlie Latimer (bow). Marist was seeded with a random draw in bow number 1 of the time trial event starting just ahead of Georgetown and Jacksonville. The Red Foxes pulled a fantastic piece placing 2nd overall of 28 crews in the event with a time of 6:12.6 behind Cal at 6:05 and ahead of Penn at 6:13.2. This enabled Marist to progress to the A/B/C semi final number 2 in the afternoon where they were assigned to race Washington, Northeastern, Jacksonville, FIT, and St Joes. In the semi final FIT came out of the gate very strong and Washington was also extremely fast, Marist, in lane 1 right next to Washington, latched onto that crew and refused to let them get away, slowly reeling in FIT over the first 1000m and eventually following UW into the lead of the race with Marist and UW pulling away from the field in the latter half of the race course. Marist made a big move to try and draw even with UW in the closing meters of the race but a flock of geese in their lane struck the rowers boat and oars, hindering their progress and blocking their final move. Marist still placed a clear 2nd in the race, in a time of 6:34.7. This 2nd place result progressed the Marist Four to the grand final for Sat where they were to race out of lane 5 at 11:30am and face Cal, Washington, Harvard, UPenn, and Princeton. Unfortunately, Marist's Coxswain fell ill overnight and was not able to participate in Saturday's race. With IRA Officials and Organizers unwilling to allow Marist a guest coxswain the boat was scratched from their grand final race where they received a DNS.
This result marks the first time Marist has placed their varsity four in the grand final since 2008 and the first time since the modern IRA format was started in 2010.
Coach's Comments: "We are unbelievably proud of this group of young oarsmen who are charting a fresh course for themselves and the rowing team at Marist. This weekend's results demonstrated the drive and commitment of our young crew and reflected the extremely hard work that went into the entire team over the course of the 2026 campaign. We are headed into the summer off season but our athletes are already hungry for preparations to begin for 2027 and the upward momentum of the entire crew is palpable. 2026 was a transformative year for Marist Men's Rowing and we are excited for what is in store for the years to come! Go Red Foxes!"
WHAT'S NEXT
Marist Will Return to Training on the Hudson On Sept 1st 2026 and will be back racing at the Head of the Charles 2026
For more detail and our video review, Check out the Marist Rowing Website at the Following Link
https://rowmarist.com/coachs-communication/marist-2026-ira-national-championships
