Wesleyan completed a perfect season to win the D-III Men's National Championship on Saturday at the IRA, in a thriller of a race that saw Wesleyan pushed the whole way by the two-time defending champ Williams--a crew both desperate and very capable of pulling the upset to stay atop the division.

The battle took enough out of the leaders, and the whole field, that the crews sat for a good long time recovering on the calm water just past the finish: five of the six crews had gone 5:50 or faster, to make Wesleyan earn the title--and the margin from Wes Crew's gold to the Ephs' silver was just two-tenths of a second. Tufts took third.

The event is just in its third year, so it is not surprising to see firsts, but this year's had some especially good ones:

• two first time winners: the Wesleyan 1V and Tufts 2V
• first time two different schools won gold
• the first three-way tie for the the points trophy: Wesleyan, Williams, and Tufts, which went to Wesleyan on the tie-breaker
• the first V8 Grand with those five crews at 5:50 or faster
• an event record in the 2V (5:55.1)
• and, while it was a first at the expense of a great Williams program that has been the standard bearer in the division the past several years, the first winners not named Williams--though Williams couldn't have been much closer to sweeping it again: just a combined three seconds away across the two events.

You can read a full story on the start of the D-III Championship and its growth in last year's IRA coverage.

D-III National Champion - Wesleyan

Wesleyan's rise this year was foreshadowed by the two silvers they won at last year's IRA, and the strong season they put up. They ran the table at New Englands and the NIRC on their way to winning the Gary Caldwell Cup here at IRA.

But winning the program's first National Championship outright was no less special for taking it as the favorites, ands Wesleyan's Athletic Director was even on hand to take it all in. The victory is just the third National Championship in any sport for Wesleyan (men's lacrosse in 2018 and women's tennis in 2019 are the others).

WHAT A RACE ????

.207 seconds … that’s all that separated the pair as Men's Crew was tested the whole race by the 2-time defending national champs Williams, but in the end it was a D3 IRA record time of 5:41.53 for the Cards to edge out the Ephs for the title ?? pic.twitter.com/6djQqpyUMR

— Wesleyan Athletics (@wes_athletics) June 1, 2024

"They've been moving well all year," said head coach Phil Carney, who has led the program for 37 years. His team actually missed out on the very first D-III Championship during a down year in 2022, but they have roared back to life these past two seasons.

"It's a lot of the same guys that were here last year," Carney said, alluding to the group that won silver in the 1v and 2V in 2023. "Two years ago, when we came back from COVID, it was just really inconsistent training. Some of these guys were part of that group, but there wasn't enough of them to really turn it over.

"We've gotten a little bigger, and gotten a few more guys out, so we're up to four eights again," said Carney about how the fortunes of the program have changed. "Then we got some really talented freshmen, even more talented than we expected. They got together as a group and it just started to snowball. It worked really well, and the guys who were successful last year, came back this year really fit right out of the gate in September. The scores they were doing on some of the standard tests we do were really great, and that was a real foundation."

That success, along with the momentum of last year's IRA medals, gave the team its confidence according to Carney.

"In the fall, the head races started going pretty well because they were really unknown, they were freshmen. When they did reasonably well at the Charles, they were pretty fired up."

Even for a very good crew, the racing in the division, especially among the schools in New England, remains tight.

"We don't take anyone for granted. We talk about treating every opponent equally as we prepare, whether we're going to beat them by ten seconds or beat them by one at one. What these guys have done a great job of, and it showed up in their racing, is that they're very level guys. They're not jump up and down and be loud in the boat kind of guys. They really do the work."

Carney says the new D-III championship, which he calls a "game-changer," is still getting traction, especially when it comes to bringing guys to Wesleyan.

"We have a good class guys coming in next year, and this championship has been a real draw, that they can come to this race and be competitive at this race. It can have an impact on their rowing. It's just been a great add.

"These guys would have been going home three weeks ago without this event. That would have been disappointing, because in that three weeks, we've gotten a lot better. It's real development and it's probably the most fun part of the whole year. Classes are over, guys have graduated, we're just rowing and they're having a blast."

Thomas Kiyonaga, the team captain and 3 seat of the 1V talked about the progress the team has made.

"Not having been here my freshman year and getting second last year makes it all the better," Kiyonaga said. "I've seen the team go from getting 13th at New Englands to winning the IRA and having an undefeated season.

"It's been an immense effort, across the board. I consider myself super lucky to have been a part of it and just to have been able to play my role. It's been great to have the guys trust me to help lead this team this year, and to help instill this sense of trust amongst the varsity and the team as a whole. And I think it paid off.

"It's been transformative," he added, "and to be a part of this and help build something, is a great feeling."

The big man in the 6 seat, Emmett Nunes, talked about the confidence the crew used to prevail in the final.

"We had a very successful dual racing season and we won those pretty handily, so we hadn't really been in close races until the championship races. But I think we came into this race with a lot of confidence because at New Englands, NIRCs, and even in the heat we had with Tufts yesterday, we were really close with a lot of boats. We had to come back through boats, we had to hold boats off.

"I actually said to some of the guys, I was kicking myself before this race, trying to get that sense of nervousness, but I just didn't have it. I was really confident going into this race. I said, no matter where we are, where other boats are, what they're doing, we're going to come out on top. That's been maybe our best asset this whole season, that we can stay composed in tight races like that. We just we just keep laying down our rhythm and make other boats match it.

Nunes, who just earned a grad degree from Wesleyan and has been with the program since 2019, actually credited his newest teammates for that confidence.

"I attribute that to these younger guys, like our stroke seat Pierce or our seven seat Nelson. They are super composed, level headed guys and they set the tone for the rest of the boat, along with Asher, our cox. Even though I've been around for so long, I fall in line with what with what they put down and that just keeps us right on the level.

"The varsity won the New England's in 2019. I was a freshman, but I was in the second varsity," said Nunes. "I watched those guys do it, and I knew that I really wanted to get there someday. I had that chip on my shoulder, for the next five years, trying to get back there. Obviously we were finally able to do that again this season at New Englands, and then keep snowballing that forward to that victory at NIRCs.

"It has been just the privilege of my life, to have been able to be on this team in the manner that I have for this long, to see these new guys come in and bring new life to this program. To go from 13th at the NIRC to third to first has been amazing and I credit these guys and our coach, Phil Carney, who has just done an amazing job bringing guys in and and getting us here."

Nelson Bellows, the sophomore in the 7 seat who helps create that tone Nunes talked about, said the crews success all comes down to the sense of team in the boat.

"Last year, coming in here, we were ranked number two and Williams had a really strong boat," Bellows said. "It was a 'you have nothing to lose' kind of race You just throw it all at them, go for it, and whatever happens, happens. Williams ultimately won out, but this year, you're going in ranked number one, you've had an undefeated season and it's like a completely different sensation.

"I think the key was really just going into it as a team, thinking this is just another race, another part of the journey. You don't think of it as a one year journey, you think of as a four year journey, and this is just another step of the way. When you take away the stigma around it and the whole national championship thing, and you just go out there and race the race that you've raced all spring, it puts you in a good position.

"We saw it at NIRCs when we got to row through Williams and we've seen it in practices all year.," said Bellows. "It's a trust that everyone's putting their best foot forward and everyone's going for it. When you have that trust, it's not going to shake and it hasn't shaken all season.

"When it's close like that, that's what wins out."

2V IRA Champs - Tufts

Tufts won the battle for the 2Vs, and after the crew had their medals, Trinity coach Kevin MacDermott asked Tufts coach George Munger if he could speak to the crew.

MacDermott, whose 2V crew took the silver--Trinity's highest podium spot to date--did not just want to congratulate the Tufts guys: he wanted to tell them the story of the cup they had just won, The Norman T. Graf Trophy.

Trinity donated the trophy last year to honor Graf's memory, naming it for the long-time Trinity coach and mentor whose coaching tree includes both MacDermott and Wesleyan's Phil Carney.

Williams won the bronze in the 2V, and their two medal day earmed them a place in that tie for the points trophy.

Notes from the Toss

The Wesleyan guys got the only legit cox toss in of IRA weekend--the docks had been hauled away from shore by the time the Sunday winners were ready to throw and swim.

Check out the full Wesleyan 1V cox toss sequence starting here.