Washington and the Georgetown Lights claimed the fours again this year--that makes it two in a row for the Huskies and three in a row for the Hoya 150s.
Heavyweight Four - Washington
For all the 39 school entered in this open fours event, the final featured six crews from teams also racing a full three eights here, so it was an even match-up this year of athletes from the same tier of their respective squads.
"This four is out of our 3V and our freshman eight," said UW assistant coach Quinn Klocke. "After The Dual against California, they came together--a senior, a junior, two freshmen, and a sophomore coxswain--and that was our fastest combination.
"It clicked really well and it was pretty clear that it could be a fast crew," he added.
"That was some great racing today and we're happy to come away with the result we did."
Klocke's advice to the crew for racing the day's tailwind?
"Stay calm, stay relaxed in the wind, and just race hard."
Harvard won the silver ahead of Cal, who took bronze.
Lightweight Four - Georgetown, Gold
For Georgetown, pulling off the threepeat so they could keep the Healey Cup on campus was special, and not just because the trophy is named for Rev. Timothy S. Healy, S.J., a former president of the university.
For the guys in the boat, all out of the Hoya's 3V, winning the race in a year when the squad earned a full team bid was a chance to showcase the depth they are building with new head coach Ethan Shoemaker.
Georgetown's last two wins came thanks to their top four athletes in years when the group fell short at Sprints in the eight, and while those wins have helped the team develop--one of last year's gold medal winners, Finn Murphy now strokes the Hoya's 1V--keeping the streak alive with a full team here to cheer them on made the win an even bigger deal.
"We've had the trophy at the school for the last two years," said bow man Donald Roveto, "and going into it, we were pretty confident because we were rowing quite well. I thought there was definitely a chance we could keep the trophy.
"The league is just so tight and honestly it could have been anyone's trophy, but what really helped us were the conditions. When we saw that pretty strong tailwind, I was pretty confident that played in our favor, because we're a really technical crew. Everyone in this boat has a lot of small boat experience from high school, and a strong tailwind really helps crews that can connect with the water better."
"We had raced Navy in our semifinal," said coxswain Ella Hastings, "and we knew that they were going to jump the start and be fast, but what we learned from the semis was that our base was fast enough to catch them.
"I focused on relying on our strong base and knowing we could take one boat at a time. We got Harvard, now we start thinking about Penn.
"Then Mercyhurst popped up there in the last 500 meters, but we made the choice to not let that matter for us as a crew. We're just going to go after it and we know that if we trust ourselves and each other, it's going to be fine."
"Once we started hear all the cheers and yelling from our teammates starting around 750 to go area, that's where we really started to move on the rest of the field," said the stroke man, Thomas Cullen. "That was the really special part because that's what made you feel like this is something bigger than just our boat and that's where we really just lengthened out.
"I was really happy with how we performed in the last 500. That was the best performance we've had in terms of racing all season."
Three seat, Brad Rhodes, was the lone freshman in the crew, and remembers watching Georgetown win this event while he was still in high school.
"Getting here and seeing how, in the span of a year, we have a whole new level of depth added to the program, where we are having our top eight and our second eight at IRAs, and our third four still be fast enough to win this event, has made me incredibly hopeful for our next couple of years. Our new coaches this year, Ethan Shoemaker and Adam Sanin, did a great job with the entire program.
"All year, we emphasized bottom up speed and using the guys that are in the 3V to push the 2V, and those guys will push the 1V The whole team functions together and it's about the entire fleet."
"Coach Shoemaker always you guys just gotta go out and race," said Clay Rybus, the two seat. "I'm a big numbers guy and I always get caught up with the numbers, but I've realized that the races you have that are really good are when you're just racing, and it's not about the numbers.
"You're just going out there and you're trusting the other guys. You're just going for it together and that's what really helped us today."
Lightweight Four - Mercyhurst, Silver
The Mercyhurst four that won the silver had already made some some program history just by making the Grand Final here, but they did that first one better by stepping up to win the team's first IRA medal.
"For a program like ours, which is usually relatively small, it's incredible to be here and compete against Ivy's that are historically so much faster than us," said head coach Jonathan Rost. "To be in the mix and now finally to be on the podium is unbelievable.
"Aside from the coxswain, they all return. It's a young crew, and we get them back for a couple more years.
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