CAMDEN, N.J. – The Navy lightweight rowing team was in limited action on day two of the 2025 IRA National Championship as just its varsity four crew was racing. With the Mids' V8 and 2V8 crews preparing for their respective finals on Sunday, the members of the V4 took center stage on the Cooper River on Saturday afternoon. Taking part in a competitive grand final race, the Mids came in fifth place after 2,000 meters of action.
The crew of senior
Andy Fichtel (Wellesley, Mass.), sophomores
George Liu (Downington, Pa.),
Max Gomez (Cohasset, Mass.) and
Ryan Kennedy (Charlottesville, Va.) and junior coxswain
Devin Ratte (Wake Forest, N.C.) got off to a strong start in which all six crews were within 1.276 seconds of each other at the 500-meter mark. The front-running Penn Quakers continued to lead over the next quarter sector as the field began to separate a bit with first through six now separated by 2.89 seconds as the Mids crossed the half-way point in sixth, but well within striking distance.
A slight division between the top four crews and the bottom two occurred during the third quarter of the race as the quartet of Penn, Georgetown, Mercyhurst and Harvard all nearly had open water over Navy and Columbia with a 4.511-second gap. Moving past the Lions during that segment, the Mids fought hard down the stretch and secured a fifth-place result over their Eastern Sprints League rival, 6:33.330 to 6:35.450. An active stretch run at the top the leaderboard saw Georgetown (6:23.900) and Mercyhurst (6:24.410) race by Penn (6:26.420) to finalize the medal podium on Saturday. Harvard was edged out the bronze medal by 0.34 seconds with a respective time of 6:26.760.
The lightweight program will conclude its action at the IRA National Championship on Sunday with the grand final race for its first varsity eight at 11:40 a.m. and the petite final for its second varsity eight at 9:50 a.m.
Race Results
Varsity Four
Fifth of 6 in Grand Final
Georgetown – 6:23.900
Mercyhurst – 6:24.410
Penn – 6:26.420
Harvard – 6:26.760
Navy – 6:33.330 **5th in the Nation
Columbia – 6:35.450
Boat Lineup
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