SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The University of Pennsylvania men’s heavyweight rowing team completed semifinal day at the IRA National Championship Regatta on Lake Natoma. Both of the Quakers' Eights will row in Petite Finals on Sunday as a result of Saturday's finishes.

Rankings held in Penn’s semifinal race on Saturday morning, as No. 1 Washington knocked off No. 3 Yale and No. 5 Princeton as all three advanced to Sunday’s Grand final. No. 7 Dartmouth was fourth in the race, while No. 10 Cornell was fifth and No. 14 Penn was sixth with a time of 5:48.223. The was just more than two seconds behind the Big Red, who overtook the Quakers in the final 250 meters of the race to gain fifth.

Penn beat its ranking again on Saturday, as the 15th-ranked Quakers knocked off No. 14 Dartmouth by nearly three seconds for fifth place. Top-seeded Washington won the semifinal in 5:42.628, beating No. 6 Harvard by more than three seconds. No. 5 Boston University (5:46.942) also qualified for the Grand Final in third, while No. 10 Northeastern was fourth about a second ahead of the Quakers.

Penn had a hotly contested semifinal on Saturday, battling throughout for the top three spots in a tight four-boat race. The Quakers were able to make their move in the final 1,000 and push ahead of Drexel for the all-important third spot in a time of 6:42.233. Colgate won the race in 6:36.940, followed by Oregon State in 6:39.051. The Dragons were fourth in in 6:46.075.