So much for no clear favorite at this IRA: as wild as some of the racing was along the way, the top-seeded Washington Huskies saw off all challengers this weekend, winning UW's 20th Varsity Challenge Cup, and sweeping the IRA to win their 18th Ten Eyck Trophy.
(It did stay a bit wild down the card: 6 seed Harvard and 4 seed Cal raced on to the podium in the V8, ahead of 3 seed Princeton, while 2 seed Brown was 7th overall out of the Petite)
See the full points tally for the Ten Eyck Trophy, with each crew's placing, here.
Washington won this National Championship on the 100th anniversary of their 1924 title, when the stroke of the Husky varsity was Al Ulbrickson himself, the future coach of, yes, those boys in the boat.
In the final--which was an epic, closed-water-across-six-crews battle most of the way--Washington powered away, and the only crew with chops to hang with them turned out to be Harvard after all.
Here is the full race replay, which just happens to be the row2k Video of the Day:
In a near reprise of the show the two put on in Sarasota, Harvard even made a bid to move back on the Huskies as they worked both to try and win it and to hold off Cal's charge to the podium, but Washington did indeed have the final gears they had kept ready all weekend to finish the job.
Cal won the bronze over Princeton, Yale and Syracuse, who finished in that order. It was an impressive show of the depth Cal still has, beating their #4 seed even with three of their undergrads away for the Olympic year. Cal made all the Grand finals in every boat--a feat matched only by Washington, Harvard and Princeton--and picked up a second bronze in the 3V.
Husky coach Michael Callahan talked about the full team effort Washington unleashed today.
"A lot of the year was led by the top boat. There's a lot of role models in there. It's a bunch of guys who are really doing the right things and had a lot of commitment.
"We talked a lot about the difference between being committed and compliant. Coming to practice on time is compliant, coming to practice ready to really rumble is committed. These guys were committed to doing things right, committed to doing the extra bit, committed to rowing well, committed to being good teammates.
"That in itself becomes contagious. When your top performers are also the most committed guys, that's very helpful. On the other hand, I do believe that the attitude and the work ethic of the guys on our team that we're developing is also important. When you have leadership in front but you also have pressure from the development guys, it creates this really powerful team atmosphere.
"I didn't sleep the night after Henley last year, thinking about who was going to fill in the roles. We were losing guys who were going to the Olympics, guys who were graduating, but then there was a lot of people that rose up this year, from the 3V level to the top boat. They just did the right things and they filled in the gaps.
"That made me optimistic, and then there were some guys who really excelled and pushed themselves in the boat, and that was just magical in a lot of ways. It's really fun to coach a group like that.
"You've still got to win on the day. After the semi final yesterday, with Princeton having a really good race, our guys got off the water pretty happy. They were saying that it was just like rowing against our other boats in practice. Princeton was out in front of us pushing us, and when we had days like that in practice, I would realize how thankful you have to be to have a 2V that pushes you that hard all the time. It never got contentious, and high water raises all boats. When you have that kind of competition, and you're raising each other up in the boathouse, that's very important."
The stroke of the 1V, Max Heid, said that, "the whole thing this year, from The Boys in the Boat movie, was 'As One'"--referring to the slogan on the UW shirts and the flag flying over their camp all weekend.
"I don't think that there could be a more fitting quote to exemplify this team over this year. Coach Callahan always says you have 'top up pull' and you have 'bottom up pressure'--and on this team, we are all working towards that common goal and all helping each other. That led us to this, where not only do we have such incredible trust amongst everyone on our team, and just incredible camaraderie, but we were truly 'As One' over this whole year and especially in those final strokes.
"Talking to everyone after the race, we all had the exact same experience where we felt like we were above our bodies, looking down. It did not feel real, those first first few strokes, and even all the way till the end, it felt like that we had just put our bodies on autopilot, using the training that we've done this whole year. It was just executing what we had done and putting our full trust in everyone, knowing that we're all hurting together and pulling for each other within the boat and for the team as a whole.
Heid talked about the feeling he had once the crew had finished the race out in front.
"For guys like me and Ethan Blight, we came to this program in 2019. It's been a long journey for us, so taking those last strokes crossing the finish line, realizing that we had accomplished what we came back to do and won that national championship, it was just a moment of shock for a second and then you just give your boys a hug."
Blight, the 7 seat of the 2V, about the role of the second eight within the team.
"A big thing for us this year has just been helping to elevate those people above us and the 3V below us," said Blight.
"We've been pushing the varsity hard all year. We've had moments where we've been up on them, and moments where they've been up on us, and that just developed a culture of success. Pushing each other every day. There's nothing quite like it. A lot of programs have clear separation between boats but the ability to have such depth, work ethic, and likemindedness pushes you to an unbelievable level.
"It's been a really long process," said Blight, looking back on the now five years since he first join the team in 2019, pre-COVID. "And I think for me, this is just proof that hard work, dedication, persistence, and consistency culminates in success at the end of the day--and nothing tops it."
The job of starting Sunday off on the winning track fell to the 3V, stroked by August Altucher, which raced the first heavyweight Grand Final of the day.
"There was some pressure," Altucher said. "But it was great to see the four win yesterday, and that is what really set the tone for the weekend.
"We were honestly pretty confident going into this one. We've had a really good season, and the depth is just incredible this year. It's really an awesome thing to be a part of.
"A sweep really takes that bottom up pressure, and so I'm really happy with the role that we played in pushing our other two boats to do their best. We saw that this weekend, from the four to the 1V, and I'm really happy with that.
Altucher said it was just incredible to be back on shore, watching the 1V complete the sweep.
"Back in 2021, when I was a freshman, we had a sweep, and it was like nothing I'd ever been a part of. It's just such an experience. It was so emotional to see these guys who have worked incredibly hard, and who I get to row alongside every single day, have their work come to fruition in such a tangible way. It's really incredible.
"Same thing with my boat mates: I've toiled alongside them and so it's incredible and I'm so happy for all of them."
The Washington four collected their hardware on Saturday--and we covered their race in the Saturday report--but on Sunday, we caught up with the crew's coxswain, Tess Kadian.
"We were looking at it like we were the tip of the spear," Kadian said about the four's role here at the IRA. "We were definitely looking to set the tone for the weekend.
"We have a really unique setup, where our fours side of the team is always seat racing and guys are bouncing back and forth. I'm actually the only person that raced the four at PAC-12s and IRAs. We changed the entire lineup and raced here with four freshmen. We were the only boat on the team that launched here thinking we really have no idea what to expect.
"We didn't race Cal in this lineup and we didn't race in Sarasota, so we didn't have any of those precedents, like the rest of the team. We almost went in blindly, but relatively confident. We knew had speed.
"Even though, we weren't an eight, we really did try to set the tone for the rest of the weekend. When we got back to the hotel after racing Saturday, you could feel the energy was where it needed to be for the rest of the team and arguably the most important boat at the end."
For the four "Grunties" in the boat, the IRA win was a sweet capper to a season where the Cal Freshmen Eight had proved formidable, and got the better of them at both the Schoch Cup and PAC-12s.
"Sergio Espinoza was actually their coach throughout the year when they raced the eight," said Kadian. "They had some really close racing with Cal and it didn't necessarily go the freshmen's way every time, but they stuck with it. Luckily, they got to extend their season and they definitely performed well here.
"A big thing was that, throughout the season when we were racing four eights and a four, they were the ones who had to keep punching and, even though in the end it wasn't an eight but a different boat class, they were able to perform under the pressure and that's great for them and the rest of their seasons to come."
Coach Callahan wrapped up our interview by taking the long view of what this year, in particular, has meant for Washington.
"It's been a really big year for us at Washington. When we started in the fall, we told them there's going to be a tremendous amount of attention on the program. We're going to have the 'Boys in the Boat' movie coming out, and there's going to be a lot of things to celebrate about the program. You want to live up to that high level.
"One hundred years ago, we won in 1924, and now we won in 2024. We wanted the guys to know that, publicly, with that and the film, there was a big opportunity this year for everyone to live up to that. Those guys from our past showed what's possible, and now it's your time to write history."
"Could we live that standard, or could we better it?" was the message to the 2024 team.
"You can draw a lot of power and a lot of motivation and inspiration from that," said Callahan. "It made the year really quite special.
"I think it's good for rowing, too. Maybe the rowing community might get a little tired of 'Boys in the Boat,' but if we look at it more broadly, then hopefully it helps get people interested in our sport.
"It's a wonderful sport for young people. It changes people's lives. That's what I hope the positive wake of 'Boys in the Boat' will be, that in a couple of years we're going to have all these kids that say, I saw that movie and I want to row.
Clayton Chapman Trophy - Georgetown
Georgetown won the Chapman Trophy, which goes to the school that has the biggest improvement in the Ten Eyck standings across its full three-boat team.
This was the first time Georgetown has won the Chapman Trophy, and they made the C final in all three events, just two years on from missing a team bid altogether in 2022.
Notes from the Course
No Weather to Speak Ill Of - IRA Commissioner Gary Caldwell may well have used up all his "weather karma" for this, his final regatta before retirement. For the first time in what he reckons is fifteen years, there were zero changes to the program and the schedule...and that is something of a rarity in today's climate, literally.
How good was the water: well, you be the judge: this is how it looked for the first races of the day. It was water and a half, as they say.
Record Time for the Threeve - while the 3V event doesn't go back quite as far as the full 121 years of the regatta, a record is a record: and the Washington 3V re-set the bar at 5:39.028 in relatively neutral conditions.
And Lots of Eats - fittingly enough for a regatta full of heavies, plus all the lights and coxswains now done with weigh-ins for the year, there are a lotta eats at the IRA, from the massive box of salmon fresh from Seattle at the UW tent to the Brat-fest worthy feast at the Wisco tent...makes an intrepid reporter a bit peckish, to say the least.
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