SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The University of Pennsylvania men's lightweight crew will come home with some hardware after the Varsity Eight took third place on Sunday at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta. All of this weekend's racing took place on Lake Natoma.
 
Under head coach Colin Farrell, Penn's Varsity Eight has now medaled at IRAs two times in the last three years after medaling just once from 1994-2016. Overall, all three boats competed in Grand Finals on Sunday with the Varsity 4 just missing out on a medal and the Four Without Cox also finishing fourth.

Varsity 8+
After not making the Grand Final at EARC Sprints, Cornell was on a mission this weekend and that was apparent in Sunday's final. The Big Red took charge early, leaving the other five boats to battle for second. Penn and Princeton moved ahead of that pack in the second 500 and held the rest of the field at bay after that. It was the Tigers who pushed through to finish second in a time of 5:44.849, giving the Big Red (5:44.426) a run at the end, while the Quakers were comfortably in third in 5:46.244 which was more than a second ahead of fourth-place Columbia (5:47.573). Yale (5:49.914) was fifth and Navy (5:50.086) took sixth.

Varsity 4+
Penn was in a battle for the second and third spots with four other boats, as Navy took off early while Georgetown fell off quickly. The Quakers looked like they would have to settle for fourth, but a strong final 250 meters got them within a whisker of sneaking past Cornell for third place and a medal. Instead, the Big Red's final time of 6:28.350 just beat Penn's 6:28.534. Navy won the race in 6:25.819, followed by Columbia (6:27.702). Princeton (6:32.454) was fifth while Georgetown (6:33.172) was sixth.

Varsity 4- (w/out cox)
Penn fell behind early but then made a late push for fourth place and within shouting range for a medal. The Quakers' time was 6:20.487, a little more than a second behind third-place Dartmouth (6:19.030). Navy dominated the race from start to finish for the easy win in 6:11.353, more than six seconds ahead of second-place Harvard (6:17.533). Princeton (6:23.503) was fifth in the final while Mercyhurst (6:25.938) was sixth.