Penn brings up rear at IRAs

A momentous season ended in bittersweet fashion for both Penn men’s rowing teams Saturday.

The lightweight and heavyweight rowing squads finished seventh and 16th respectively, at the IRA National Championship Regatta, which began last Thursday on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

This marked the lightweights’ first national championship appearance in three years, and their highest finish since placing third in 2005.

But coach Nick Baker still wished his team had done more.

“It wasn’t so much that we finished last,” he said. “It’s that we came up short of our usual standards.”

The Quakers finished with a time of 5:53.826, behind sixth-place Dartmouth by just over a second, while the top five boats all finished within six seconds of each other.

“We believed that, given the boat we had out there, we could’ve performed at a higher level,” Baker said.

Princeton barely edged out Navy for its second straight national title, extending the Ivy League’s retention of the crown to four consecutive years.

Ancient Eight programs Harvard and Yale also participated in the race, along with Georgetown.

The heavyweight team, meanwhile, had its own shortfalls.

Penn’s Varsity Eight finished sixth out of six teams in the Red and Blue’s first race on Thursday, while the Second Varsity boat failed to qualify for the Grand Final, finishing fifth in its heat.

In Saturday’s Third Final race, the Quakers finished third, close behind Dartmouth and Navy.

California went on to win its second Varsity Eight title in the last five years, edging Washington by 0.263 seconds, while the Huskies took home the Second Varsity and Freshman Eight championships.

The Regatta was the last spring event for Penn’s lightweight and heavyweight squads.

“Looking back at the whole season, we certainly learned some valuable lessons,” Baker said. “There are things we’ll be able to take with us into next year and beyond.”

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