Historic Showing for Heavyweights at IRA Championship

Friday, May 28

Trenton, N.J.

Dartmouth College

IRA National Regatta

Rowing Blades

Historic Showing for Heavyweights at IRA Championship

5/29/2021 11:56:00 AM | Men's Heavyweight Rowing, Men's Lightweight Rowing

Regatta Results Photos Photo Gallery

Bringing Home Two Bronze and a Silver Medal

By: Cindi Mansell

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. — It had been over a decade since the Dartmouth heavyweight rowing team had qualified any boat for the grand finals at the IRA Championship, and 17 years since the varsity 8 had done so. Yet the Big Green, which did not compete until May 8 this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, managed to place all four of their boats in the grand finals, earning a medal in three of them with the varsity eight and third varsity taking the bronze and the second varsity claiming the silver.

Washington swept the championship races to take home the James Ten Eyck Trophy with the highest point total in the field. The Big Green finished in third behind Washington and California.

Another cold, rainy day — though with less wind and choppy water on Lake Mercer than yesterday — could not slow Dartmouth. The varsity eight, continued to show the form that allowed it to earn their spot in the race. While Washington outdistanced Pac-12 rival California by just over three seconds with a time of 5:59.707, the Big Green (6:07.607) maintained a similar distance on fourth-place Syracuse (6:10.882) to win the bronze. Stanford (6:12.859) and Northeastern (6:16.684) rounded out the field.

The first finals of the day were contested by the third varsity with Washington (6:08.491), California (6:11.308) and Dartmouth (6:23.086) finishing 1-2-3 as they would later in the morning in the varsity eight grand final. Northeastern (6:26.108) was more than three seconds behind the Big Green but outpaced Navy (6:31.920) and Brown (6:35.154).

In the second varsity eight finals, Washington took an early lead and never looked back, winning in open water (6:15.425). The race for second was hotly contested with Dartmouth and California neck-and-neck to the wire. But the Big Green were able to just nip the Bears at the finish by over a second (6:24.915 to 6:25.998). Northeastern (6:28.432), Syracuse (6:31.158) and Princeton (6:36.449) closed out the race.

The varsity four plus cox, comprised of members of the Dartmouth lightweight team, had its semifinals canceled yesterday and the finals pushed until after the varsity eight boats due to unsafe conditions for the smaller shells. Seeding was determined by the time trials, which placed the Big Green in the grand final. Dartmouth came up just short of earning one more medal, placing fourth (7:08.489) behind Boston University (7:06.429). Washington (6:59.449) took gold with California just edging BU for silver (7:06.229). Penn (7:17.864) took fifth, while Oklahoma City (7:18.772) and Syracuse (7:27.452) wrapped up the day's racing.

Lightweight Dan Roock shares his perspective, "It was a great day for Dartmouth rowing. All crews performed extraordinarily well. I'm especially pleased with the lightweight rowers in the 4+, an event that greatly favors bigger and stronger crews. Placing 4^th in a field of 20 was fantastic. And the fact that all three heavyweight eights won a medal is amazing, a first for Dartmouth rowing, I believe."

Complete results can be found through the IRA website.

Notes
The last Dartmouth varsity eight to earn a medal was the 1992 boat that shared the national title with Navy and Penn … the last heavyweight boat of any kind to race in a grand final was the coxless pairs in 2008 that finished fifth … the coxless pairs was the last boat to medal as well — in 1995 when it took the gold.

1V
Samantha Sizelove (C), Paul Gralla (8), Caleb Edmundson (7), William Bender (6), Henry Lowe (5), Harrison Taylor (4), Joseph Hajjar (3), Mark Levinson (2), Liam Keane (1)

2V
Mikayla Hubner (C), Evan Dwinell (8), Will Kalikman (7), Dan Kramer (6), Clayton Kiyonaga (5), Gus Emmett (4), Luke Marshall (3), Will Sanford (2), Billy Lockhart (1)

3V
Reagan Readinger (C), Jack Taylor (8), Colin Glew (7), Theory Millar (6), Max Bessler (5), Robert Pare (4), Richie Santry (3), Alexander Lehr (2), Teddy Danziger (1)

V4 plus Cox
Sean Ward (B), Chris Stich (2), Cooper Tuckerman (3), Jack Stone (Str.), Addison Textor (Cox)