RESULTS | Coach Bohrer | Matt Maginnis

Worcester, Mass. - Highlighted by silver and bronze medal victories, the Boston University men's rowing team competed at the Eastern Sprints on Sunday at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

After a very successful morning of heat races in which all of BU's boats easily advanced to the grand finals, the Terriers earned their first medal of the day in their first race of the afternoon, the fourth varsity grand final.

BU's 4V8, coxed by sophomore Carly Skehan and stroked by junior Rajagopal Srinivas,  had a good start and held a half deck lead over the first 1,000 meters. Over the 3rd 500 meters, Brown and Cornell began to close and then passed the Terriers over the final 100 meters. BU finished third in a very tight finish with a time of 5:55.33, just behind race winner Cornell (5:54.81) and Brown (5:55.18) but well ahead of Dartmouth (6:05.73), Navy (6:10.76) and Yale (6:13.84).

In the third varsity eight grand finals, BU faced off against Yale, Northeastern, Cornell, Princeton and Brown. Cornell pulled ahead early but was caught by Princeton and Brown over the final 500 meters. The Tigers held on for the win with a time of 5:48.60, followed by Brown (5:48.88), Cornell (5:52.49) and Yale (5:55.10). BU's third varsity, coxed by freshman Justin Goucher and stroked by junior Drew Miller, finished a strong fifth after pulling away from rival Northeastern over the final 500 meters. The 3V finished with a time of 5:57.18, four seconds ahead of NU, and earned 8 Rowe Cup points.

In maybe the most exciting race of the day, the seventh seeded BU second varsity eight, coxed by freshman MacKenzie Hart and stroked by classmate Max Ponsen, won silver in its grand final race. In a very tight race with several lead changes, Harvard jumped out to an early lead with Princeton in second while BU battled with several boats for fourth. The Terriers began to steadily close the gap on the leaders through the midway point of the race and over the final 500 meters, BU passed Northeastern and then Harvard. In the final 100 meters, BU took over sole possession of second place and held off Northeastern at the finish for the silver. The 2V finished with a time of 5:45.03, just behind gold medalist Princeton (5:43.95) and ahead of third place finisher Northeastern (5:45.36), Brown (5:48.16), Yale (5:50.65) and Harvard (5:52.70).

The silver medal was the first for a second varsity eight boat at Eastern Sprints in program history and earned the Terriers 11 Rowe Cup points.

"I thought it was a great race for the second varsity," said men's head rowing coach Thomas Bohrer after the race. "I thought they were a couple of strokes away from winning the whole thing. They had a good couple of weeks of practice so it was good to see."

In a much anticipated heavyweight varsity eight championship race, the No. 1 seeded Yale Bulldogs pulled out to an early lead that they did not relinquish, finishing first with a time of 5:35.74 to claim the V8 Eastern Sprints championship. The BU varsity eight, coxed by senior Lauren Harvey and stroked by junior Vass Ragoussis, finished sixth with a time of 5:43.60, just behind fifth place Harvard (5:42.15).

With the sixth place finish in the grand finals, BU earned 9 Row Cup points to finish with 28 points overall, good for sixth place out of the field of 18 teams. Princeton won the Eastern Sprints Rowe Cup team title after earning 37 points

Earlier in the day, BU cruised through its heat races and advanced all of its boats to the grand finals for the third-consecutive year.

In the morning's first heat, the fourth varsity eight boat won its race with a time of 5:54.05, ahead of second place finisher Brown (5:58.41), Navy (6:04.3), Harvard (6:06.14) and Holy Cross (6:16.60) and advanced to the grand finals.

Next up was BU's third varsity eight boat. After a strong start, the 3V was comfortably in position to advance throughout the race. BU finished second with a time of 5:43.56 behind heat winner Brown (5:42.13) but well ahead of third place finisher Dartmouth (5:48.37).

BU's No. 6 ranked varsity eight boat easily advanced to the grand finals after finishing a very close second to Harvard in its heat race. The V8 finished with a time of 5:38.57 just .5 seconds behind winner Harvard (5:38.05) and well ahead of third place Dartmouth (5:42.64), Penn (5:43.68), MIT (5:51.343) and Georgetown (5:52.72).

The Terrier's second varsity eight boat continued BU's morning success by taking second in its heat. The BU 2V finished with a time of 5:36.99 behind Princeton (5:36.6) and ahead of third place finisher Cornell (5:43.49), Wisconsin (5:47.32) and Syracuse (5:54.11).

The BU varsity four took home third place in a grand finals morning race that did not have a morning heat race to qualify. The V4 finished with a time of 6:42.07. BU finished ahead of crews from Penn and MIT.

After this weekend's competition, the Terriers will prepare for the IRA National Championships in Mercer, New Jersey on May 29-31.

FULL RESULTS

1V:

C: Lauren Harvey, 8 - Vass Ragoussis, 7- Fionnan McQuillan-Tolan, 6- Aleksandar Marinkovski, 5- Luka Miladinovic, 4 - Mackenzie Copp, 3- Kep Edwards, 2 - Oliver Salonna, 1- JP Aftring

2V:

C: MacKenzie Hart, 8- Max Ponsen, 7- Uros Marinkovic, 6- Matt Maginnis, 5- John Carter, 4- Spencer Haas, 3- Mike Kapp, 2- Tomas Weaver, 1- Alex Dillon.

3V:

C: Justin Goucher, 8- Drew Miller, 7- Dan Marconi, 6- TJ Ruijgh, 5- Will Aftring, 4- Jacob Barker, 3- Austin Bald, 2- Gregor Dierks, 1- Jamie Odgers.

4V:

C: Carly Skehan, 8- Rajagopal Srinivas, 7- Nolan Solis, 6- Dan Relle, 5- Tate Gill, 4- Cam Pizzo, 3- Peter Roberts, 2- Riley Overfield, 1- Charles Fidler

4+:

C: Jeanne Garner, 4 - Alessandro Gabrielli, 3- Maximilian Achs, 2- Adam Sundholm, 1- Fisher Curran