Men's Crew Finishes IRA's Strong - Oregon State University Athletics

The IRA Championships have come to an end in Camden New Jersey on June 3. The Oregon State men’s crew finished strong with some good times and competition amongst a plethora of excellent crews from all over the country.

The Freshman Four narrowly missed a medal on Saturday in the Grand Final race. They had been running aggressively in second place behind Wisconsin for the first 1000 meters, then they were overtaken and fell to third by the 1500 meter mark and in the last 500 meters California put on some excellent moves to bump OSU to the fourth best F4 boat in the country.

Oregon’s State Varsity Four also came out of the gates aggressive. The V4 boat showed the signs of an extra race as they slipped to 6 place in the Petite Final race and finished as the 12^th best V4 boat.

A second place finish in the Third Final was the result for the OSU Varsity Eight Crew. With the second place finish, OSU finishes as the number 14 ranked boat in the country, four rankings better than the number 18 they came into the regatta as.

“The Freshman Four really had a good race,” said Head Coach Fred Honebein. “They were out in the top two for most of the race and Cal just got them at the end of the race. They felt good coming off the water. They felt they could have won a medal and were a little disappointed about that, but they really felt good about their performance. I was really pleased with how they race.”

“The Varsity Four went out aggressive, but having to row an extra race really hurt us. We really showed that down the last two legs of the race. I really felt they gave a good effort and did what that had to do to get where they were.”

“As for the Varsity Eight, it was unfortunate that we only qualified for the Third Final. But that says nothing about our effort and performance. We came in ranked 18^th in the country and finished 14^th. We competed very well with some of the best crews in the country. Finishing 14^th wasn’t where we wanted to be, but if you look at the whole spectrum, we exceeded our expectations and every gave excellent performance this weekend.”

Freshman Four Grand Final

1. Stanford 6:42.86

2. Wisconsin A 6:46.21

3. California 6:46.51

4. Oregon State 6:50.22

5. Princeton 6:51.15

6. Colgate 6:51.22

Varsity Four Petite Final

1. Wisconsin 6:39.79

2. Harvard 6:43.67

3. Colgate 6:45.48

4. Penn 6:48.37

5. Rutgers 6:51.45

6. Oregon State 6:53.99

Varsity Eight Third Final

1. Boston U. 5:52.29

2. Oregon State 5:55.39

3. Georgetown 5:55.38

4. Michigan 5:56.19

5. Columbia 5:59.22

6. Holy Cross 6:00.56