For women at the IRA championship, there is one lightweight eight, one lightweight four and one lightweight double. The first eight qualifies at either Women’s Sprints or Dad Vail with up to 12 spots. The four is open to all member schools, and the double is limited to 12, with priority going to those racing in the aforementioned events. The national championship title is awarded to the winning team in the eight.
Athletes weigh in on the Thursday before racing and must weigh less than 130 lbs (59.0kg).
So with all of that said and done, let’s look at the runners and riders competing at Cooper River, NJ this weekend at the IRA National Championship.
Princeton University
Led by Paul Rassam, the Tigers are pursuing their fifth national title under his tenure. They return to the IRA championships as the defending champions, and after the season they have had, we can certainly expect them to stand at the top of the podium once more. To kick off the season, they were second at the Head of the Charles behind Boston University, but two weeks later, they dominated Harvard and Georgetown on home water at the Princeton Chase. Since then, Princeton has gone undefeated in varsity eight throughout the season and won the Women’s Sprints by clear water over its closest rivals, Harvard. It seems that very little will stand in Princeton’s way as they look for their fifth title in a row in this event.
Harvard-Radcliffe
Behind Princeton, Radcliffe has been the best of the rest throughout the season. Throughout the racing season, they have only ever lost to Princeton or BU, with those defeats to BU coming at the Knecht Cup and a Boston duel featuring MIT back in mid-April. Since then, they regathered themselves to finish second at Women’s Sprints, comfortably pushing the Terriers into third place with Stanford missing out on a podium position. Last year, Radcliffe placed second in this event. Fast forward 12 months, and they are indeed in a position to go one better this year.
Boston University
The Terriers have already been mentioned a couple of times after an inconsistent season against their closest rivals in this event. Mary Foster returns to lead the programme for her second season, and joining her are five from last year’s varsity eight and three from the varsity four. On paper, then, they have a decent squad. However, after a cracking start to the season at HOCR and some excellent results in the duels, including a win at the Knecht Cup, momentum slowed for BU with them only managing a third-place finish at Women’s Sprints, where they placed 4.3s behind Harvard. This is quite the swing from their 2.7s victory at the Knecht Cup and a cracking 5.1s victory over Radcliffe one week later. Momentum would suggest that BU are currently looking at a third-place finish; however, if they can rediscover their early-season speed, we can expect them to go toe to toe with their Boston rivals.
Stanford
Quite often, a dynasty will win this title, and one of the greatest ever constructed was by the Cardinals. From 2010-2019, Stanford won nine out of ten varsity eight races at the IRA, with the streak only interrupted by Radcliffe in 2014. Since then, they have had a couple of coaching changes, and Lizzy Housten now finds herself in the driving seat of the programme. With five returners from last year’s crew, one might have expected some more speed out of Stanford in the early stages of the season, but perhaps they could be compared to a diesel locomotive – slow to get going but gradually picking up speed. Against the favourites, they have narrowed down racing margins from 14s at the beginning of April to just under ten seconds three weeks later at Women’s Sprints. So, if they can keep up that rate of progress, then we could see Stanford break the trend and sneak onto the podium, especially if BU were only 1.6s ahead of them at Sprints.
The IRA championships will also see Georgetown, Wisconsin, and MIT compete for the national title. Based on results this season, it is unlikely that these programmes will be challenging for a medal. While only 1.8s separated Georgetown and Wisco at Women’s Sprints, these two crews found themselves in their own battle, more than 20 seconds back on the winners, Princeton. Meanwhile, MIT last found themselves in action against BU and Harvard and in that battle for Boston, the Engineers were 15 seconds back on Radcliffe.
Prediction
Princeton, then Harvard, and perhaps controversially, Stanford, to take the bronze.
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