CHERRY HILL, N.J. – The University of Pennsylvania men's heavyweight crew program saw all three Eights advance into A/B semifinals at the IRA National Championships on Friday. The Quakers took second place in their Varsity Eight and Third Varsity Eight heats and third in their Second Varsity heat.
 
The three-day IRA Championships are taking place this weekend on the Cooper River.

Friday's Races
1V8
The Quakers nipped Brown by less than three-tenths of a second for second place in this race, the top three boats easily surpassing the bottom three on the way to Saturday's A/B semifinals. Cal was the race winner, a little less than two seconds ahead of both Penn and the Bears.
  Cal, 5:32.650
  Penn 5:34.360
  Brown 5:34.620
  La Salle 5:45.860
  Temple 5:51.550
  MIT 6:01.460

2V8
Penn took third place in its heat on Friday, advancing to A/B semis on Saturday. The Quakers finished about three seconds behind race winner Washington and less than two seconds behind Brown, but were never threatened for third, beating fourth-place La Salle by more than 10 seconds.
  Washington 5:41.950
  Brown 5:43.530
  Penn 5:45.060
  La Salle 5:55.680
  Columbia 5:55.790

3V8
The Quakers were picked to finish second in this race and met that finish, falling to race winner Harvard by a little more than four seconds but beating third-place Boston University by more than six seconds.
  Harvard 5:45.000
  Penn 5:49.260
  BU 5:55.530
  Oregon State 6:03.020
  La Salle 6:09.770

V4A
Penn threw down the third-fastest time (6:06.798) out of 39 boats in Friday morning's time trial, finishing behind only Washington (5:59.438) and Cal (6:02.638). That put the Quakers in the A/B/C semifinals later that day, and there they finished second in a six-boat race that featured a fantastic finish as Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth were separated by less than a second. The Crimson were declared the victor, with the Quakers placed second just 0.15 seconds ahead of the Big Green.
  Harvard 6:18.920
  Penn 6:19.760
  Dartmouth 6:19.910
  Drexel 6:26.470
  FIT 6:30.980
  Cornell 6:33.760
  
SATURDAY SCHEDULE | Watch Live on Overnght.com | Live Results | Penn Boatings (PDF)
12:40 p.m. - 1V8 Semifinal (A/B 2)
  (lanes 1-6) Brown | Yale | Dartmouth | Washington | Penn | Navy
12:56 p.m. - 2V8 Semifinal (A/B 2)
  (lanes 1-6) Penn | Syracuse | Princeton | Cal | Brown | BU
1:04 p.m. - 3V8 Semifinal (A/B 1)
  (lanes 1-6) BU | Princeton | Washington | Cal | Penn | Brown
3:20 p.m. - V4A Grand Final
  (lanes 1-6) Penn | Brown | Washington | Cal | Harvard | Syracuse
 
For the latest on Penn men's heavyweight rowing, follow @PennHwtRowing on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.