RESULTS

WORCESTER, MA – Highlighted by a fourth-place team finish and a bronze-medal performance by the second varsity eight, the Boston University men's rowing team competed at the Eastern Sprints at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. on Sunday.

On the day, BU advanced three boats to the grand finals, won bronze in the second varsity eight grand final and finished fourth in the varsity eight grand final, missing a bronze by two tenths of a second. As a team, BU finished with 26 points, good for fourth place overall in the Rowe Cup team competition.

The fourth-place team finished tied the program's highest finish ever at the Eastern Sprints, matching the 2013 Terriers, and the fourth-place finish in the varsity eight grand final was the best in program history.

THE RUNDOWN
Event: Men's EARC Sprints
Location: Lake Quinsigamond – Worcester, Mass.
Results: EARC

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The varsity eight boat, coxed by senior Mackenzie Hart and stroked by junior Uros Marinkovic, easily qualified for the grand final, finishing second behind Yale in its morning heat. In the grand final, the No. 7 seeded Terriers took on No. 1 Yale, No. 2 Harvard, No. 3 Princeton, No. 4 Dartmouth and No. 8 Brown. The championship race started very even with all six boats within five seats at the 500 meter mark. Yale moved out to a lead over the second 500 meters, ahead of Harvard and Princeton with BU and Dartmouth fighting for fourth. BU pulled away from Dartmouth and was even with Princeton over the final 100 meters but the Tigers crossed the line just ahead of BU and took the bronze. Yale earned gold with a time of 5:30.70 with Harvard taking silver (5:31.14). Princeton won the bronze by a bow ball with a time of 5:36.39 while BU settled for fourth with a time of 5:36.52. Dartmouth (5:38.77) and Brown (5:40.62) rounded out the field.
• The 1V's fourth-place finish was the highest a BU varsity eight boat has finished at Eastern Sprints in program history.
• BU's No. 3 seeded second varsity eight finished second in the morning heat behind Princeton to easily to advance to the afternoon's 2V grand final. In the grand final, the No. 3 seeded Terriers took on No. 1 Yale, No. 2 Harvard, No. 4 Princeton, No. 7 Brown and No. 11 Cornell. The 2V, coxed by junior Justin Goucher and stroked by freshman Nils Kocher, pulled out to an early lead over the first 500 meters ahead of Princeton and Yale. The Tigers caught BU at the 1000 meter mark and took the lead by a length as BU settled into second. Over the final 100 meters, Yale began to close on BU and the two boats battled for silver down to the final stroke. Princeton won gold with a time of 5:35.57 and Yale barely edged BU for silver. The Bulldogs finished with a time of 5:38.03, just ahead of BU's time of 5:38.23.
• The No. 4 seeded third varsity eight finished third in the morning heat and moved on to the petite final. BU raced against No. 6 Dartmouth, No. 8 Navy, No. 11 George Washington, No. 10 Cornell and No. 12 Syracuse. In a very even first 1000 meters, all six boats were within a length of the leader Navy. The BU 3V, coxed by sophomore Jeanne Garner and stroked by senior Peter Roberts, battled Navy for first place down the stretch but the Mids finished first with a time of 5:46.83, just ahead of second-place BU (5:48.32). The Terriers finished ahead of Cornell (5:49.40), Syracuse (5:49.93), Dartmouth (5:51.11) and GW (5:56.46).
• The No. 2 seeded BU fourth varsity eight, coxed by sophomore Sean Dooling and stroked by junior Will Aftring, finished second in the morning heat and advanced to the grand final. In the grand final, BU took on No. 1 Harvard, No. 3 Princeton, No. 4 Brown, No. 5 Navy, and No. 6 Dartmouth. After an even start with all six boats within three seats at the 500 meter mark, Harvard began to pull away as Navy, Princeton and BU battled it out for second and third. Over the final 500 meters, Harvard and Navy battled for first and BU and Princeton went to the wire fighting hard for third. Harvard was victorious with a time of 5:43.16, ahead of second-place Navy (5:45.72) as Princeton just edged BU by a bow ball at the line to take bronze with a time of 5:46.24 ahead of BU's time of 5:46.26.
• On the day, BU finished with 26 points and in fourth place in Eastern Sprints Rowe Cup points standings. The fourth-place finish tied the 2013 Terriers for the program's highest finish at Sprints. In 2013, BU earned 22 points and was part of a four-way tie for third place. With the finish of the V8 race used as a tiebreaker, BU finished in fourth.

CLOSE CALLS

• The Terriers varsity eight boat missed a bronze medal finish by two tenths of a second and the BU 2V8 missed a silver by two tenths of a second. In addition, BU's 4V8 was edged by Princeton by two hundredths of a second for bronze.
   

ROWE CUP TEAM POINTS
(Tiebreaker - 1V finish)
1. Yale - 38 points
2. Harvard - 35
3. Princeton - 35
4. Boston University - 26
5. Brown - 25
6. Cornell - 19
7. Wisconsin - 17
8. Dartmouth - 13
9. Syracuse - 12
10. Northeastern - 12
11. GW - 10
12. Navy - 6
13. Penn - 4
14. Columbia - 4

HEAT RACING

• The BU 4V8 got things started in the Terriers' first heat race of the morning, finishing second to advance to the grand finals. The 4V8 finished with a time of 5:46.08, second to winner Princeton (5:45.61) and ahead of Dartmouth (5:54.73), Cornell (5:54.87), and Syracuse (6:07.73).
• The 3V8 finished third in its heat race and moved on to the afternoon's petite final. The 3V, finished with a time of 5:47.91, behind heat-winner Princeton (5:46.17) and Wisconsin (5:46.68).
• The second varsity eight finished second in its heat race behind Princeton. BU cruised to a second-place finish with a time of 5:44.54, behind winner Princeton (5:40.42) and ahead of Columbia (5:49.45), George Washington (5:52.19), HC (6:05.68) and Georgetown (6:05.75).
• The varsity eight boat easily qualified for the grand final finishing second behind Yale in its morning heat. BU finished with a time of 5:36.46 behind heat-winner Yale (5:33.91) and ahead of Syracuse (5:38.30), Penn (5:38.98), Navy (5:43.82) and Rutgers (6:07.59).

WEATHER CONDITIONS

• Despite a light but steady rain, Sunday's conditions on Lake Quinsigamond produced very fast times. With the help of a tail wind, 62 of the 79 entries had times under six minutes in the morning heat races.

 NEXT UP

• The Terriers will head to the IRA National Championship Regatta in Sacramento, Calif. on June 2-4.