RESULTS | Coach Bohrer Interview | Schedule| Live Broadcast

West Windsor, N.J. - The Boston University men's rowing team advanced all four boats to the semifinals in a very successful day 1 of racing at the 113th IRA National Championship Regatta on Mercer Lake.

BU's first and second varsity eight boats both advanced directly to the semifinals after finishing in the top two of their morning heat races while BU's third varsity eight and varsity four advanced by competing in the afternoon repechage races.

"We knew that all the heats were going to be tough and everyone was going to try to get in those top two qualifying spots," said men's head rowing coach Thomas Bohrer. "We were really happy with the 1V. We went to a new lineup after the Eastern Sprints and this is the first time we raced with it. I thought it was a really solid performance by them. The 2V got out early and lead wire to wire so that was a pretty impressive race."

Racing in the first heat race of the day, the Terriers' varsity eight boat, coxed by senior Lauren Harvey and stroked by sophomore Aleksandar Marinkovski, got the Terriers off on the right foot. BU got out to a good start and fell in behind early leader and No. 1 seed Washington with Navy in third. The Terriers built a half-length lead over Navy over the first 500 meters and extended it throughout the race, cruising to a second-place finish. BU finished with a time of 5:55.24, behind heat winner Washington (5:52.52) and ahead of third-place Navy (5:58.89).

In BU's next heat race, the second varsity eight boat jumped out to an early two-seat lead over second-place Northeastern. BU's 2V, coxed by freshman MacKenzie Hart and stroked by classmate Max Ponsen, extended the lead to a full length at the 1,000 meter mark and finished with an open water victory. BU finished with a time of 5:56.96, ahead of NU (6:01.46), Dartmouth (6:13.51), Navy (6:15.24), Florida Tech (6:27.30) and Holy Cross (6:39.86).

BU's third varsity eight boat finished third in its heat race behind California and Harvard and needed to race in the afternoon's repechage in order to advance to Saturday's semis. In the repechage, the 3V delivered. Coxed by freshman Justin Goucher and stroked by freshman TJ Ruijgh, BU pulled ahead of Navy early and never relinquished the lead. The Terriers won the repechage with a time fast time of 6:03.00, ahead of second-place finisher Navy (6:07.19).

BU's varsity four boat finished third in its heat race behind Stanford and Yale and also needed to compete in the repechage to advance to the semis. Coxed by sophomore Carly Skehan and stroked by freshman Tate Gill, the 4V came through with a strong performance. The V4 finished in second place with a time of 7:01.54, well ahead of third-place finisher Penn (7:06.80) to move on.

Friday's performance was the fourth time in the last seven years under head coach Thomas Bohrer that BU advanced all four of its boats to the IRA semis.

IRA racing will continue on Saturday with the third varsity eight semifinals beginning at 9:12am.

FULL RESULTS

LINEUPS

1v
Cox - Lauren Harvey, 8 - Aleksandar Marinkovski, 7 Fionnan McQuillan-Tolan, 6 - Matt Maginnis, 5 - Luka Miladinovic, 4 - Mackenzie Copp, 3 -- JP Aftring, 2 - Oliver Salonna, 1 - Vass Ragoussis

2v
Cox - MacKenzie Hart, 8 - Max Ponsen, 7 - Uros Marinkovic, 6 -- Kep Edwards, 5 - John Carter, 4 - Spencer Haas, 3 - Mike Kapp, 2 - Tomas Weaver, 1 - Alex Dillon

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

V4+
Cox -- Carly Skehan, 4 -- Tate Gill, 3 -- Dan Relle, 2 -- Nolan Solis, 1 -- Cam Pizzo