2025 SRAA National Championship – Boy’s Varsity Eight Preview

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/198263754@N07/

This weekend, America’s top scholastic crews will race at the 2025 SRAA Scholastic National Championship Regatta. This year’s race will be hosted on the Cooper River in New Jersey. Crews racing will have qualified from one of eight regional championship regattas, or will have been granted an entry based on petition. 2025 will see 20 entrants battle it out in the boy’s senior eight category.

Canisius High School

Based in Buffalo, New York, Canisius High School has trained crews to achieve results at top regattas such as Canadian Henley and the United States U19 Trials. Canisius placed fifth in this event in 2024, five seconds behind New Trier High School. This year, they placed bronze at the New York State Scholastic Championship, just half a second off Saratoga. Margins are close to competing crews, and Canisius needs to step up for a podium finish at SRAAs in 2025.

New Trier High School Rowing

Out of Winnetka, Illinois, New Trier is an established scholastic programme in both men’s and women’s youth rowing. In 2022, New Trier placed fifth at SRAAs. In 2023 and 2024, they won. Earlier this month, New Trier placed second at the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championship to earn a spot for SRAAs. New Trier enters this year’s regatta with a comfortable base speed, looking to regain their trophy.

Saratoga Rowing Association

Affiliated with Saratoga Springs High School, Saratoga Rowing Association is one of the fastest scholastic programmes in New York. In 2024, they placed third at this event, only 1.7 seconds behind the winners. This month, the Saratoga men’s varsity eight claimed silver at the New York State Scholastic Championship. This result put them within five seconds of RowAmerica Rye, last year’s national champions. Saratoga will enter this year’s SRAAs with building speed and look to overtake New Trier.

St. Ignatius Wildcat Rowing

The St. Ignatius Wildcats are one of the fastest scholastic programmes in the Midwest. Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, Saint Ignatius has a good record at SRAAs. They came fourth in 2022, sixth in 2023, and second in 2024. Last year, their silver finish put them just 0.6 seconds off New Trier, the scholastic champions. Earlier this May, the eight finished third at Midwest Scholastics, placing four seconds off New Trier. The programme has work cut out for them if they want to claim the top position this coming weekend.

Predictions

New Trier’s momentum will be hard to overcome at the 2025 SRAA Scholastic National Championship. I believe they will win a third consecutive title. I predict Saint Ignatius will take the silver due to their close margins to New Trier, both this season and last. Canisius will be hungry to reverse the result from NYSSC, and I have them taking bronze over Saratoga, with only seconds separating the two programmes.