DAY 1 RESULTS | UPDATED SATURDAY SCHEDULE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Boston University men's rowing team advanced all four boats to the semifinals in a successful first day of racing at the 115th IRA National Championship Regatta on Lake Notoma.
 
BU's 2V and 3V boats both advanced directly to the semifinals after finishing in the top two of their morning heat races, while BU's V8 and V4 advanced after winning their afternoon repechage races.
 
THE RUNDOWN
Event: IRA National Championship Regatta
Location: Lake Natoma - Sacramento, Calif.
Results: IRA.org

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
VARSITY EIGHT
• BU's No. 6 ranked varsity eight boat finished third in its morning heat race behind No. 3 Yale and No. 11 Syracuse and needed to race in the afternoon's repechage to secure a place in Saturday's semifinals.
• Needing to win its repechage race, the 1V came through against Columbia, George Washington and St. Joseph's. The 1V, coxed by junior MacKenzie Hart and stroked by classmate Uros Marinkovic, got out to a five-seat lead over Columbia and George Washington at the 500m mark with St. Joseph's falling back to fourth. BU opened the lead to a full length over Columbia at 1000 meters but the Lions began to make a move over the final 500 meters and cut BU's lead to one seat over the final 100m. But the Terriers answered and held off Columbia at the finish to advance to Saturday's semifinals. BU finished with a time 5:50.33, ahead of Columbia (5:50.71), George Washington (5:58.24) and St. Joseph's (6:07.08).
 
SECOND VARSITY EIGHT
• Earlier in the day, the No. 5 second varsity eight boat finished second in its heat race to advance directly to the semis. The 2V, coxed by junior Justin Goucher and stroked by Nils Kocher, pulled away from the pack along with Yale in the early going with Syracuse in third place. BU trailed Yale by a length at the 1000m mark but held a four-seat lead over third-place Syracuse and finished the race comfortably in second. Yale finished first with a time of 5:46.80, followed by BU in second (5:51.02) with both boats advancing to Saturday's semis. Syracuse finished third (5:56.73), followed by Columbia (5:59.79), Drexel (6:04.31) and St. Joseph's (6:04.38).
 
THIRD VARSITY EIGHT
• The third varsity eight, coxed by junior Jeanne Garner and stroked by senior Peter Roberts, easily advanced to the semis with a second-place finish in its morning heat race. The 3V finished with a time of 5:50.9, just behind heat-winner Harvard (5:49.51) but well ahead of third-place Wisconsin (6:00.9). GW was fourth (6:03.94) and Drexel finished fifth (6:24.29).
 
VARSITY FOUR
• The varsity four boat also needed to compete in the afternoon repechage to advance to the semis after finishing second to Navy in its morning heat race, with only the heat winner advancing directly to the semifinals in fours competition.
• In the repechage, the 4V needed only to finish in the top two to advance to the semis. The 4V, coxed by sophomore Sean Dooling and stroked by freshman Theodore Thun, pulled ahead of the field early and didn't look back, winning the race by open water. BU's V4 finished first with a time of 6:47.38, to move on to Saturday's semifinal. MIT finished second with a time of 6:53.97 and also qualified for the semis, followed by Drexel (7:06.75) and Cornell (DNF).     
 
UP NEXT
• Day 2 of the IRA National Championship Regatta will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET (8:00 a.m. PT) with the men's varsity eight semifinal.
• Saturday's schedule has been changed, with the men's varsity eight semifinals now the first competition of the day. Click HERE for the updated schedule (lanes to follow).
• For a full list of Saturday's semifinal matchups and live results click HERE
• To watch all of tomorrow's rowing action from Sacramento click HERE
• Also competing on Saturday for BU will be the women's lightweight rowing team which will start its IRA competition at 8:40 a.m. with the women's lightweight varsity eight heat race.