June 4, 2011

Harvard, Yale Lightweights Capture 2011 IRA National Championships

Portions courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications and Yale Sports Publicity

CHERRY HILL, N.J. -- Ivy League crews captured lightweight gold at the the 109th IRA National Championship Regatta on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J., with Yale winning the varsity eight title and Harvard cruising to the varsity four title.

Heading into the final stretch of the lightweights' varsity grand final, Yale and Harvard was neck and neck with Dartmouth close behind and open water back to Cornell. Dartmouth continued to fade as Yale sprinted to the line with what looked to be a one-seat lead on Harvard. At the finish line it appeared to be advantage Yale, but neither the Bulldogs nor the Crimson threw their hands up in celebration. After regatta officials consulted video of the finish Yale was declared the winner and national champions, by a margin of just 0.02 seconds.

Harvard's lightweight varsity four was more than four seconds better than the rest of the national field. The Crimson started with the top half of the pack. Princeton and Navy stayed with Harvard for the first 500 meters, but the Crimson pulled away from both, first the Tigers and then the Midshipmen, in the next 500. The lead increased over the second half of the race, and Harvard posted a winning time of 6:28.562, with Princeton taking silver and Cornell earning bronze.

Ivy boats grabbed silver in the heavyweight races as Harvard finished second to Washington in both the first and second varsity eight grand final and Brown finished second, also to the Huskies, in the varsity four final.

League teams also had second-place showings for the team trophies as Harvard finished just behind Washington for the Jim Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy while Princeton finished second to Wisconsin for the Clayton W. Chapman Trophy.

2011 IRA National Championships - Jim Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy (Team Championship)

	School	Points
1.	Washington	195
2.	Harvard	184
3.	California	173
4.	Princeton	155
5.	Brown	142
6.	Wisconsin	138
7.	Cornell	135
8.	Boston University	99
9.	Yale	99
10.	Navy	97
11.	Syracuse	92
12.	Stanford	85
13.	Dartmouth	67
14.	Penn	48
15.	Columbia	47
16.	Georgetown	35
17.	Gonzaga	31
18.	UC San Diego	26

2011 IRA National Championships - Clayton W. Chapman Trophy (Team Point Improvement)

	School	Point Differenical from 2010 Championships
1.	Wisconsin	43
2.	Princeton	39
3.	Navy	25
4.	Yale	23
5.	Stanford	21
6.	Harvard	19
7.	Penn	6
8.	Washington	2
9.	California	-7
10.	Brown	-12
11.	Dartmouth	-12
12.	Boston University	-27
13.	Syracause	-27
14.	Cornell	-32
15.	Columbia	-43