No. 1 Bears Getting Set For IRA Championships

BERKELEY – The No. 1 California Golden Bears men's rowing team is currently in preparation for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships, which take place June 2-4 at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey. Cal's top three varsity eight boats as well as its varsity four are scheduled to compete.
 
All races will be streamed on the IRA YouTube channel here and live results will be posted here.
 
The Bears are looking to repeat as national champions for the first time since 1999-02 when they won four straight titles. Last year the program won its 18th overall national championship, which is the third most of any school in the country. In addition to the national championship, given to the winner of the varsity eight race, also at stake is the James Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy, which is given to the school with the most points among its top three varsity eights.
 
"It has been a productive few weeks of training leading into the IRA and the lineups are all gelling well," Cal head coach Scott Frandsen said. "We've been able to do all of the training that I wanted to do and the crews have had some really positive pieces of work.  We've been building towards this weekend all year and I think the crews are all hitting their stride this week. All of the athletes are mentally and physically ready to race. I'm excited, and I know that they are all eager to get to the start line and have our best races of the year."
 
Cal is heading into the championships coming off an impressive season in which the first and second varsity eights (both ranked No. 1 in the latest IRA poll) went undefeated and took down some of the top programs in the country including No. 3 Washington to retain the Schoch Cup, No. 4 Syracuse, No. 6 Northeastern, No. 9 Stanford and No. 11 Boston University.
 
The IRA Championships will return to the traditional three-day format for the eights, with Friday serving as heats and repechages races, semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. There is a slight tweak to the schedule in that the grand finals for the varsity 4+ will take place on Saturday, with both the time trials and semifinals taking place on Friday.
 
Complete Schedule (all times EDT)
 
Friday, June 2 (Heats and Time Trials)
 
8:10 a.m. – Varsity 8+ heat 1
Lanes 2-7: Columbia, Brown, Cal (4), Dartmouth, Drexel, MIT
 
9:10 a.m. – Second varsity 8+ heat 1
Lanes 2-6: Drexel, Cornell, Cal (4), Dartmouth, Columbia 
 
10:30 a.m. – Third varsity 8+ heat 3
Lanes 2-7: Drexel, Boston U, Cal (4), Brown, Penn, Oregon State
 
11:20 a.m. – Varsity 4+ time trials
 
Saturday, June 3 (Eights A/B semifinals; Four grand final)
 
8:30 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. – Varsity 8+ A/B semifinals
8:50 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. – Second varsity 8+ A/B semifinals
9:10 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. – Third varsity 8+ A/B semifinals
11:10 a.m. – Varsity 4+ Petite Final
11:40 a.m. – Varsity 4+ Grand Final
 
Sunday, June 4 (Eights grand finals)
 
9:20 a.m. – Third varsity 8+ Grand Final
9:50 a.m. - Second varsity 8+ Grand Final
10:40 a.m. – Varsity 8+ Grand Final
11 a.m. – Noon:  Awards ceremonies
 
STAY POSTED
For further coverage of Cal men's rowing, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalMrowing), Instagram (@calmrowing) and Facebook (Cal Crew).