The Northeastern men’s rowing team advanced all three eights to the A/B Semifinals on May 29 at the IRA National Championships held on Lake Natoma in Gold River, California.
Racing will continue Saturday with the first varsity competing at 8:48 a.m. Pacific Time, followed by the second varsity at 9:04 a.m., and third varsity at 9:36 a.m. The varsity four will race in the B Final after participating in a time trial and semifinal on Friday.
In the first varsity heat, Northeastern and Harvard quickly took control, pulling ahead of the field early. Harvard gained a two-seat lead during the second 500 meters while Northeastern maintained second place nearly a full length ahead of Boston University. Harvard finished first with a time of 5:42.410, just ahead of Northeastern’s 5:45.270. The Huskies will face Washington, Princeton, Dartmouth, Syracuse, and Yale in Saturday’s A/B Semifinal; the top three finishers advance to the Grand Final.
The second varsity race saw Harvard and Navy leading slightly with Northeastern close behind in third early on. As Harvard pulled away midway through the race, it became a contest for second between Northeastern and Penn. The Huskies moved ahead during the third segment to secure second place at 5:47.460 while closing some distance to Harvard (5:45.870). In their semifinal round Saturday, they will compete against Washington, California, Brown, Yale, and Cornell.
California led from start to finish in the third varsity heat as Northeastern battled Penn for second position throughout much of the race. After overtaking Penn briefly near the halfway mark thanks to a strong push from its crew, Northeastern was passed again by Penn but managed to hold off Navy for third place with a time of 5:56.710—securing their spot in Saturday’s A/B Semifinal against Harvard, Washington, Syracuse, Penn, and Yale.
After finishing eighth in its morning time trial to reach Friday afternoon’s A/B/C Semifinal round for fours competition—where only the top two crews would progress—Northeastern found itself trailing Washington and FIT before rallying mid-race for third place (6:40.610). The Huskies move on to Sunday’s B Final alongside Syracuse, Cornell, Jacksonville, Boston University, and Dartmouth.
