The Northeastern men’s rowing team advanced all three eights to the A/B Semifinals on May 29 during the first day of the IRA National Championships held at Lake Natoma in Gold River, California.
Saturday’s schedule will see the Huskies’ first varsity eight racing at 8:48 a.m. Pacific Time, followed by the second varsity at 9:04 a.m., and third varsity at 9:36 a.m. The varsity four will compete in the B Final at 11:04 a.m. after participating in both a time trial and semifinal on Friday.
In their opening race, Northeastern and Harvard quickly established themselves as frontrunners in the first varsity heat, with Harvard ultimately taking first place with a time of 5:42.410 and Northeastern finishing close behind at 5:45.270. This result secured Northeastern’s place in Saturday’s A/B Semifinal, where they will face Washington, Princeton, Dartmouth, Syracuse, and Yale for one of three spots in the Grand Final.
The second varsity race saw Harvard lead early with Navy just ahead of Northeastern. The Huskies moved into second position midway through the race and finished with a time of 5:47.460 behind Harvard’s winning time of 5:45.870. The crew will meet Washington, California, Brown, Yale, and Cornell next.
California dominated the third varsity heat while Northeastern battled Penn for second place before ultimately finishing third with a time of 5:56.710—enough to advance to their own A/B Semifinal against Harvard, Washington, Syracuse, Penn, and Yale.
After an eighth-place finish in its morning time trial earned it an A/B/C Semifinal spot for the varsity four boat later that day, Northeastern placed third (6:40.610) behind Washington (6:32.820) and Marist (6:34.720). The Huskies now move on to contest Saturday’s B Final against Syracuse, Cornell, Jacksonville, Boston University, and Dartmouth.
