Men's Crew Successful in Day 1 at IRA's - Oregon State University Athletics

Oregon State men’s crew began racing in Camden, N.J. today at the IRA National Regatta. The Varsity Eight started things off in the morning but didn’t get off to a great start slipping to sixth in their heat with a time of 5:56.64. In the Repechages race the V8 bounced back with a better performance beating a very strong crew in Georgetown with a time of 5:52.96.

The freshman four boat got going well with a second place finish (5:43.57) in their heat race. The F4 boat came in second behind only powerhouse Stanford (6:41.61). In their Repechages race OSU came in first place with an excellent time of 6:42.52 ahead of Yale which qualified them for the semi-finals.

The varsity four crew came out with a fourth place finish in their heat with a time of 6:56.56 that put them behind three solid crews in Stanford, Colgate and Hobart. The crew came back with a very strong race in the Repechages race and finished in second place with a time of 6:33.95 which was good enough for them to advance to the semi-finals as well.

“Well I feel that things went real well today,” Head Coach Fred Honebein said. “Both the varsity four and freshman fours advanced to the semis. The varsity eight had a good race in the Petite. They were only three and a half seconds off the lead and they beat Georgetown and a few others that were seeded ahead of us. Even though we raced well, I don’t think we got the results we wanted. We definitely showed we have some speed. The lack of result I think is from the extreme field improvement in speeds. Everyone is racing fast.”

All three boats will be competing again tomorrow June 2 with races beginning tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Time.

*complete results at