Men's Crew Ready for 109th IRA Championships
June 1, 2011 | Men's Rowing
June 1, 2011
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Coach Bohrer Previews IRAs
CAMDEN, N.J. - Sending four boats to the 109th IRA Regatta, the Boston University men's crew will compete against 17 schools for the national championship over a three day period beginning Thursday (June 2) on the Cooper River. Last season, the Terriers captured the Petite Final in both the varsity eight and freshman eight races to finish sixth overall in the standings.
In Tom Bohrer's first year at the helm in 2009, BU placed seventh and received the Clayton Chapman Award for being the most improved team in the country.
Fans will be able to watch all of the action live by clicking here. An audio feed can be found here. Furthermore, Terrier Nation can get results by following @BUAthletics and @BUmenCrew on Twitter.
Seeded eighth, the varsity eight boat will start off the competition at 8:15 a.m., racing against No. 2 California, No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 11 Navy, No. 14 Georgetown and No. 17 San Diego. The Terriers had an unbelievable dual season, capturing a program-record five cups against rivals Brown (Michalson), Dartmouth (Bill), Northeastern (Arlett), Columbia (Lusins) and Syracuse (Conlan). Thursday's race will give BU the opportunity to avenge its only loss of the regular season to Wisconsin (Jablonic).
Placing in the top two is important, as the top finishers in the heat will automatically advance to Friday's semifinals, while the other boats will have to compete later in the afternoon in the Repechage to stay alive for a chance to reach the Grand and Petite Finals. Last year, BU won the Repechage and then missed out on the Grand Final by 0.02 seconds. The Terriers are coming off a sixth-place finish at the Eastern Sprints.
Seeded 13th, the second varsity eight boat will race at 8:45 a.m. against No. 1 Washington, No. 6 Princeton, No. 7 Brown and No. 12 Penn. Since there are only 15 boats in competition, the top three finishers instead of two will advance to the semifinals. The Terriers are coming off an 11th-place result at the Eastern Sprints.
Missing out on the Grand Final at last season's IRAs by 0.24 seconds, the freshman eight boat enter this year's competition as the No. 7 seed. The Terriers will race at 10 a.m. against No. 1 California, No. 6 Cornell, No. 12 Stanford and No. 13 Columbia with the top two earning an automatic semifinal berth. They placed sixth at the Eastern Sprints along with the V8 boat.
The varsity four boat will conclude the morning session at 10:45 a.m. against Harvard, Syracuse, Penn and Brown. The top two boats will advance to the semifinals.
The Repechage races will begin at 2 p.m. for teams not earning an automatic berth in the morning.
LINEUPS
V8: Cox - Bobby McGee, Stroke - Todd Sukolsky, 7 - Matthew Given, 6 - Kosta Gioulekas, 5 - David Fette, 4 - Andrew Reswow, 3 - Sebastian Mueller, 2 - Marko Bezbradica, Bow - Sean Dixon
2V8: Cox - Allison Pescatore, Stroke - Charles Ruprecht, 7 - Sjoerd Klem, 6 - Wijnand Schoemakers, 5 - Joe Gartland, 4 - James Potts, 3 - Andrew Ruprecht, 2 - Griffin Duffy, Bow - Kyle Jones
F8: Cox - Tennyson Hunt, Stroke - Moritz Franz, 7 - Lenny Futterman, 6 - Kyle Peabody, 5 - Walt Asmuth, 4 - Thaddeus Babiec, 3 - Joe Thilman, 2 - Thomas Morrison, Bow - Curtis Hon
V4: Cox - Justin Rau, Stroke - John Szramiak, 3 - Alex Keiser, 2 - Ross Dale, Bow - Ted Beck
