WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – The University of Pennsylvania men's lightweight crew completed the first day of racing at the IRA National Championships on Friday. The Quakers are rowing two Eights and a Four on Mercer Lake this weekend.
 
Varsity Eight
Penn will row against Mercyhurst and MIT in the Petite Final on Sunday at 10:20 a.m.
 
Penn was chasing almost from the opening stroke and finished fourth in its heat on Friday morning. The Quakers will row in the B final on Sunday. Penn's time was 5:52.278 across Mercer's 2,000-meter course. Georgetown won almost wire-to-wire in this race in 5:43.214, with Columbia (5:44.996) overtaking Navy (5:45.612) in the middle of the race and then holding off the Midshipmen for second.
 
Second Varsity Eight
Penn will row in the seven-boat Grand Final on Sunday at 9:40 a.m.
 
Penn finished fourth in its heat on Friday morning, making a nice push through the middle of the race to separate itself in the seven-boat field. The Quakers clocked 6:10.241 across Mercer's 2,000-meter course to finish comfortably ahead of Georgetown (6:13.027) and Yale (6:14.999) for fourth place. Navy won the race in 6:01.321, with Cornell second (6:03.787) and Columbia third (6:08.657). Princeton (6:17.239) was seventh.
 
Varsity Four
Penn advanced to Saturday's Petite Final by taking ninth out of 14 boats in Friday morning's time trial, then the Quakers took sixth in a seven-boat A/B semifinal. Penn clocked 6:41.311 across Mercer's 2,000-meter course and easily defeated Iona (6:47.131). Harvard won the race in 6:24.141 and was followed in order by Marietta, Cornell, Princeton and MIT ahead of the Red and Blue.
 
IRA SATURDAY SCHEDULE | Watch on YouTube! | Live Results | Penn LWT Boatings
  11 a.m. – Lightweight Fours Petite Final
    (lanes 2-7) FIT | MIT | Yale | Princeton | Georgetown | Penn