Coach Bohrer Interview | Results | Sunday Schedule (updated)

West Windsor, N.J. - Highlighted by the second varsity eight and third varsity eight boats advancing to the grand finals, the Boston University men's rowing team completed day 2 of the IRA National Championship Regatta on Mercer Lake on Saturday.

The second varsity's semifinal race pitted the No. 5 seeded Terriers against No. 1 Cal, No. 3 Washington, No. 7 Yale, No. 10 Cornell and No. 14 Penn with only the top three boats advancing to the grand finals. The race began with Cal jumping out to quick lead over the first 500 meters followed closely by Washington, with Yale and BU battling for the all-important third place. The BU 2V, coxed by sophomore MacKenzie Hart and stroked by sophomore Jacob Barker, poured it on over the second half of the race and began to pull away from Yale and gained on second-place Cal. BU caught and then passed Cal over the final 100 meters to finish second and advance to Sunday's grand final. Washington was first with a time of 5:36.57, followed by BU (5:38.09) and California (5:39.37). The remainder of the field, Yale (5:40.94), Cornell (5:43.79) and Penn (5:49.49) moved on to the petite final.

In the first competition of the day, BU's varsity eight boat competed in a very tough semifinals race. The No. 8 seeded BU 1V took on No. 1 Yale, No. 3 Princeton, No. 5 Brown, No. 10 Columbia and No. 11 Penn with the top three boats advancing to the grand final. After an even start, Yale jumped out to a lead followed by Princeton and Brown with BU fourth. BU and Penn battled with Brown for much of the race for the third spot but BU fell to fifth at the finish line with a time of 5:42.88 and moved on to Sundays petite final. Yale finished first (5:31.81) followed by Princeton (5:35.45), Brown (5:36.84) and Penn (5:42.23). BU finished ahead of sixth-pace finisher Columbia (5:51.03).

BU's third varsity eight boat had an impressive performance in its semifinals race. Again with the top three boats advancing to the grand finals, No. 7 BU took on No. 9 Yale, No. 4 Brown, No. 2 Princeton, No. 6 Cornell and No. 11 George Washing. Princeton pulled away early while Brown, BU and Cornell battled for the final two coveted position. BU's 3V, coxed by sophomore Justin Goucher and stroked by freshman Paul Giroux, fell behind Brown but finished ahead of Cornell for third place. Princeton (5:44.85), Brown (5:47.25) and BU (5:47.98) all advanced to the grand finals while Cornell (5:51.13), Yale (5:56.42) and George Washington (6:00.8) moved on to the petite final.

In their last semifinal race of the day, BU's V4, coxed by freshman Sean Dooling and stroked by sophomore Riley Overfield, finished fourth behind Washington, Holy Cross and MIT and moved on to the petite final on Sunday.

Racing for Sunday has been moved up due to threats of thundershowers. Action is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. with the men's varsity eight petite final followed by the grand final at 7:08 a.m.