Saturday crowned the 2023 IRA's first champions, with Williams sweeping both the National Championship in the D3 Varsity Eight and the gold medals in the 2V finals, Cal picking up the win in the Heavyweight Four, and Georgetown taking the IRA Championship in the Lightweight Four.
D3 National Champion - Williams
While the wind might have flipped to a slightly choppy headwind for Saturday, the script in D3 stayed the same, and Williams continued its run with a new crew, but the same kind of controlled win from the front that has set up the program as the current standard bearer in D3.
Coach Marc Mandel's crew had a mix of youth and experience--four seniors joined by two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior coxswain--and we caught up with one of the new men in the crew this year, sophomore bow man Noah Phipps.
"There was certainly some outside pressure," Phipps confessed, about being in the crew favored to win, but added, "Marc and our coxswain Isabelle [Shah] and the whole team have been really focused on keeping the boat internal and just putting down the fastest piece we can. So doing a lot of mindfulness before this and then being here and really appreciating the moment, whether it's before the race, during the race, or after the race really helped us just enjoy the process of getting here and then enjoying the result."
"We've been so focused on every practice bringing our best that every day has felt like there's been an improvement," said Phipps about the way this year's championship crew came together.
"We have four seniors in the boat, but our entire senior class has been so impactful, both with the speed of our program and the culture of our program. So when our coxswain called a 10 today for our four seniors in the boat and for the rest of the seniors on the team, we really started to move. That was when I knew we had some real boat speed coming into the last 500."
D3 2V Trophy - The Norman T. Graf Cup
Williams also won the new 2V event, which fittingly also has a brand new trophy: The Norman T. Graf Trophy, named for the longtime Trinity coach and mentor, whose 'coaching tree' runs deep in D3--as row2k covered in Graf's 2018 obituary--and includes both Wesleyan coach Phil Carney and current Trinity coach Kevin MacDermott, as well as IRA Commissioner Gary Caldwell.
"Norm was a well traveled coach," said Caldwell, when asked about dedicating the trophy to Graf. "He was a member of the greatest generation, served in the Merchant Marine in World War Two, was the lightweight varsity coach at Yale, and took over the Trinity program.
"His coaching tree is significant, to say the least. I think all of us coaches, in our mid 40s now and older, have benefited from Norm either directly or indirectly. Kevin McDermott and Phil Carney both have ties to the Trinity program when Norm was there. Andy Anderson--Dr. Rowing--coxed for him. I coached with him, and then just his longevity. He was coaching up until he was 91 or 92. So a lot of us in D3 owe him a great deal that I think we all try and repay in small measure on a daily basis as coaches. Trinity and Wesleyan really did the work to come up with a trophy and get it done for this spring. I think it's entirely appropriate, and I'm really pleased that that's what they decided to do."
Wesleyan: 1st D3 Bid Good for Double Silver
Behind the Ephs and all that winning boat speed in both D3 finals, there was all the scrapping and fighting for spots that you can expect when you throw five D3 crews together. Yet, for all the feisty throwing down, Wesleyan managed to keep their bow just ahead for silver in both the 1V, by 0.06 seconds over Bates, and the 2V, by a second over the opportunistic Trinity 2V.
Two silvers, just a year after Wesleyan missed out on an invitation to the inaugural championships, made for a great day.
"The Bates 1V is a great crew," said Wesleyan senior Oliver Diamond, one of the two team captains in the varsity boat. "They have a huge move through the middle 1000 into the whole last 1000. They're always there, and I think our crew does a great job at being reactive, making moves when we need to and being really responsive during the race.
"There's a lot of heart in this crew so when our coxswain calls for it, we know everyone's there. There's just a lot of trust and we've been doing a great job with that all season."
Wesleyan's other senior captain, Joe Kagan, stroked the Varsity eight.
"It was just an awesome race start to finish," said Kagan. "Our plan was, let's gas it in the first thousand, race it like it's a 1000 meter race, and then just try and hold on. Put ourselves in a position to be competitive and to fight for some medals.
"The conditions today were super variable, but it still allowed us to really capitalize on the changes we've made. Obviously, Bates really gave us a run for the money, but that's what we appreciate so much about our crew and our ability to kind of test our mettle in that way. It was one of the most memorable races I've ever had."
"We've got some young guys in the boat," added Diamond, "guys who are just picking up this sport, as is often the case in D3, but they're extremely athletic and super dedicated already. It's been great for me to see guys fall in love with the sport for the first time, and it's rejuvenating for me. Especially when I've got guys on the erg that I can contend with who just started out and can push me forward. It's made it really exciting."
Since Wesleyan did not even qualify for a bid a year ago, making it this year and leaving with two silver means a lot to Diamond as a captain and a senior.
"It meant a tremendous amount to us," said Diamond. "Through COVID and everything, it's just been a really unique time in history, for athletics in general, and for the sport and so to come through that, to take some hits and to keep faith and to be where we are right now? It just means a huge amount.
"I think it speaks to the dedication of this crew to each other and our faith in each other that if we just keep moving forward and keep making progress, that we'll get there. I think this is just another step on the ladder for this group."
Watch for an in-depth feature soon on this second year of the D3 Championship, its impact on D3 schools, and the addition of the D3 2V event.
Heavyweight Four IRA Champs - Cal
The fours events went right into finals after Fridays weather trouble, but for the Cal crew that crushed the opening time trial, it was smooth sailing on the front all the way, even as a street fight erupted behind them for silver and bronze, where Temple and Dartmouth came through in the final sprint to edge the newly reinstated FIT program off the podium.
While the four does not count towards Ten Eyck team points, putting Cal into the win column to start the medal round on the heavyweight side meant a lot to the crew, according to bow man Josh Anderson.
"There's so much momentum in rowing, especially as a team, when you have all these boats together," said Anderson. "For example, this morning, when I saw the JV walk through Yale in the semis, it just gave me a lot of confidence in our program, and how we row and how we conduct ourselves in a race. So I'm hoping that what we did today will do the same thing for the boats tomorrow.
"We knew the conditions were going to be rough," Anderson said about the race itself, "but we knew what we had. We have a lot of power in the four. We just had confidence that our base split would be fast and that if we kept driving it, we'd put ourselves in a good position and we did that today--and we definitely have some good Estuary experience that helps you prepare for conditions like these."
Lightweight Four IRA Champs - Georgetown
When Georgetown's lightweight eight took eighth at Sprints and missed earning an invitation, head coach Matt Madigan used the opportunity to run a fours camp that could set the tone for next year and what he hopes the team can accomplish.
In Madigan's first year working with the team last spring, when he stepped in mid-year to guide them, that crew came to the IRA and won a bronze in the eight, but now that he is leading the team long term, the win in the four with a core of athletes returning next year might be even more significant for the team.
"When we started IRA camp, this boat really came together to do things at the next level," said Madigan. "The guys that took part in that camp really raised the bar, and I think the results showed today.
"Those guys in the four have been part of the core, and we had a freshman and sophomore in that boat today. And they're the ones that need to set the standard for the guys coming in for future years, which is exciting. Then two of those guys were just elected captains for next year, and they showed real leadership through this camp, and their experience is going to be brought forward throughout the next year.
"This league is so tough that if you have a bad day, like we did at Eastern Sprints, you need to be able to turn that around in the coming year and really bring our best next year," Madigan noted.
"I'm super proud of the guys and the effort they put into it, because the other guys didn't have to stick around but they did stick around, they did push each other, and they came out with a boat that was ready to go."
Notes From the Course
For the Four - First thing the Williams team did after the trophy ceremony? They hustled over en masses to the point at the 1500m mark--trophies and all--to cheer on their four in the E Final of the Open Four racing.
Rolling Out Early - a number of school trailers with just one short shell aboard rolled out of the boatyard today as the Fours event finished up, and most of the D3 teams hit the road as well. While the boat yard is not quite all the way to the "empty boat tent" feeling you get at Henley on the eve of the Sunday, there was still the sense that we are down to the last day, and all the exciting racing it will bring.
Boatyard Wisdom - Bates coach Peter Steenstra took a moment to stop and share this nugget of wisdom he got from Bates assistant Cian Noone, even though his truck was loaded, running, and there was a long road ahead to travel back to Lewiston, Maine:
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit...wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad."
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