ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy heavyweight and lightweight crew programs will culminate their collegiate seasons this weekend across the country in Northern California with competition at the 2019 IRA National Championships. Three days of racing lies ahead for the two squads with the heavyweight Mids entering four boats in events over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while the lightweights will have three crews competing in qualifying heats on Friday and finals on Sunday. The action begins on Friday with all seven boats hitting the Lake Natoma waters in Gold River, California, first up will be the lightweight four without a coxswain at 11:10 a.m. (ET).

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) will be providing live VIDEO and RESULTS of both the heavyweight and lightweight regattas.

The action for Navy's heavyweights begins at 11:50 a.m. (ET) with heat four for the first varsity eight. Seeded 12th overall, the Mids will initially race versus Harvard, Brown, George Washington, Colgate and Drexel. Less than a hour later at 12:40 p.m. (ET), the 11th-seeded second varsity crew will attempt automatically advance to the semifinals in racing versus California, Yale, Penn, Hobart College and Florida Tech. The third varsity eight, who is seeded tenth overall, will be Navy's final eight-man boat. The 3V8 is slated for heat racing at 1:20 p.m. (ET) versus Yale, Boston University, Oregon State and Drexel. The heavyweight varsity four is scheduled for a heat competition at 2:30 p.m. (ET) as one of field boats in the field of California, Brown, MIT and Dartmouth

All four heavyweight events will have repechage racing later on in the day on Friday from 4:50 p.m. (ET) to 7:00 p.m. (ET). Only the top two boats in each of the V8, 2V8 and 3V8 heat races automatically advance to the semifinals, while the remaining boats race again in the repechages. For the V4 competition, only the heat winner advances to the semifinals.

(Heavyweight Head Coach Rob Friedrich & team captain Owen Firebaugh look back at the Eastern Sprints and ahead to the IRAs)

Navy's lightweight team has entered its first varsity eight crew, as well as its varsity four with a coxswain boat and varsity four-without a coxswain boat in the championship. With a smaller field, the lightweights will race in just an initial heat competition on Friday before advancing to championship final action on Sunday. The Mids' heat schedule on Friday consists of the V4- kicking off the racing at 11:10 a.m. (ET) versus Georgetown, Mercyhurst, Penn and Columbia. Next up, the first varsity eight crew, that is seeded fourth overall in the field, will test itself versus Yale, Georgetown and Cornell at 12:10 a.m. (ET). Navy's V4+ rounds out the day at 2:30 p.m. (ET) with its heat versus Dartmouth, Yale, Penn and Cornell.

In all three lightweight heat races, the top three boats will advance to the grand finals with all others moving onto petite final action on Sunday.

Scouting the Opposition
The heavyweight varsity eight field at the 2019 IRA National Championship is 24 teams deep with 14 opponents from the Eastern Sprints competition (May 19) with the addition of Washington, California, Stanford, Oregon State, Florida Tech, Colgate, Santa Clara, UC San Diego, Hobart and Drexel. 

In the lightweight competition, eight first varsity programs will be racing in Gold River, as the field is as follows: Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, Navy, Penn, Princeton and Yale.


(Lightweight Head Coach Shawn Bagnall and team captain Drew Bennett preview the IRAs)

Last Year at the IRA National Championships

Heavyweights:
The 2018 IRA National Championship came to a disappointing close for the Navy heavyweights with high winds making Mercer Lake unable to host the majority of races. The Mids were only allowed to participate in one race on Championship Sunday, the first varsity eight competition. At the conclusion of the Third Level C Final, the Mids finished 15th overall in the nation.

The C Final involved six teams racing for national positions 13 through 18. Faced with difficult water conditions on Mercer Lake, Navy's first varsity eight crew found itself in a one-on-one battle over the 2,000-meter course with Penn. While Cornell was in control and finished first at 6:58.236, the Mids and Quakers finished 0.809 apart in second and third position. Unfortunately for Navy, Penn overtook its boat down the stretch with a time of 7:04.459. Navy clocked in at 7:05.268. The rest of the field in the C Final went Florida Tech (7:12.403), St. Joseph's (7:12.403) and George Washington (7:20.151).

The Third Level C Finals for Navy's second and third varsity eight crews, as well as its first varsity four were cancelled.

Lightweights:
A disjointed day of IRA National Championship action on June 3, 2018 saw a plethora of success come the way of the Navy lightweight crew program as the Mids won the varsity four without a coxswain title and placed fifth in the varsity eight race for the highest result in that respective event for Navy since 2010. The racing on Sunday started at Mercer Lake in the morning before winds made the location un-rowable and forced a site change to Carnegie Lake down the road in Princeton.

In the first varsity eight competition, Navy finished in fifth with a time of 6:28.429. Columbia won the national title for V8 crews with a 6:18.782 result. In the V4- race at Carnegie Lake, Navy its second event title in as many years as they knocked off Princeton by 3.57 seconds to win with a time of 6:20.40. The Tigers clocked in at 6:23.97. The V4- gold medal result was the first in that boat class for Navy in its history at the IRA National Championship. In 2017, the Mids varsity four with a coxswain won the national title. 

In the unofficial final team point standings, Navy finished fourth overall. The IRA organization did not oversee the V4+ and V4- races so the point totals are deemed "unofficial." The finishes of both the V4+ and V4- are official. 

Race Schedule
Friday
11:10 AM (ET) - LWT Varsity Four w/o Coxswain (Georgetown, Mercyhurst, Penn, Columbia, Navy)
11:50 AM (ET) - HWT Varsity Eight (Harvard, Brown, Navy, George Washington, Colgate, Drexel)
12:10 PM (ET) - LWT Varsity Eight (Yale, Navy, Georgetown, Cornell)
12:40 PM (ET) - HWT Second Varsity Eight (Cal, Yale, Navy, Penn, Hobart, FIT)
1:20 PM (ET) - HWT Third Varsity Eight (Yale, Boston U., Navy, Oregon State, Drexel)
2:00 PM (ET) - HWT Varsity Four w/Coxswain (Cal, Navy, Brown, MIT, Dartmouth)
2:30 PM (ET) - LWT Varsity Four w/Coxswain (Dartmouth, Yale, Navy, Penn, Cornell)
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4:50-5:20 PM (ET) - HWT Varsity Eight Repechage
5:30-6:00 PM (ET) - HWT Second Varsity Eight Repechage
6:10-6:20 PM (ET) - HWT Third Varsity Eight Repechage
6:30-7:00 PM (ET) - HWT Varsity Four Repechage

Saturday Schedule
11:36-2:00 PM (ET) - Semifinals (HWT V8, HWT 2V8, HWT 3V8, HWT V4 ... LWT-Off)

Sunday Schedule
11:10-2:12 PM (ET) - Finals (All Seven Classifications)

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Broadcast Information (from IRA)
IRA AND AFFILIATE CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTAS ANNOUNCE LIVESTREAM AND RESULTS LINKS FOR THE INTERCOLLEGIATE ROWING ASSOCIATION NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (IRA)
 
BOSTON, Mass. – The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) and their affiliates are pleased to announce live web streaming for the 117^th Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship Friday, May 31 through Sunday June 2, 2019.  Viewing this event will be free of charge.
 
Once again, the IRA National Championships will be streamed via USRowing's video department led by Willie Black. These events will be livestreamed and archived on USRowing's YouTube channel. The channel can be accessed by the following link:   https://www.youtube.com/user/usrowingorg/featured