NATIONAL CHAMPS! Lightweight Eight Wins Gold At IRAs

GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The Cornell men's lightweight varsity eight capped an undefeated season with its fourth national championship since 2014 after an impressive race this afternoon at the 117th edition of the IRA Regatta, held on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The Big Red's last national tile also came on Lake Natoma at the 2017 IRAs. Two members of that boat – Sorin Koszyk and Henry Ellis – repeated as national champions, rowing in the sixth and third seat, respectively. Other members of the crew consisted of: coxswain Molly Rochford, stroke Eric Lee, (7) Cameron Bertossa, (5) Nick Anderson, (4) Evan Krum, (2) David Tigermanand bow Andrew Hickey. Over the span of five years, Cornell has posted four undefeated seasons and won four national titles, the best stretch since the program won three consecutive IRA titles from 2006 to 2008. Cornell has now won the IRA crown in seven of the last 12 seasons and eight times overall since the lightweight championship was added in 1990. The race began with an aggressive start by Yale but Cornell stayed with the Bulldogs and soon left the Ivy foe in its wake. By the 1,000-meter barrier the Big Red had a large lead of nearly a full length on the rest of the field, which it maintained until a late push by Princeton. The Tigers showed impressive speed over the final 500 to nearly catch the Big Red, but Cornell held on to win by just less than a deck in a time of 5:44.426. Princeton took silver in a time 5:44.849 and Penn earned bronze (5:46.244). In the other men's lightweight races, the varsity lightweight four earned the bronze medal in the Grand Final, coming in behind Navy and Columbia, while the varsity lightweight four without coxswain won the Petite Final to place seventh overall.

DAY ONE RESULTS The Cornell men's lightweight rowing team came one step closer to capturing its eighth national championship as the varsity eight won its heat in a time of 5:47.800 to advance to Sunday's Grand Finals at the 117th edition of the annual IRA Regatta on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The race is slated for 1:56 p.m. The Big Red's lightweight four placed third in its heat in a time of 6:34.534 and will compete in Sunday's Grand Final race at 11:58 a.m., while the lightweight four without coxswain took fourth in its heat and will row in the Petite Final at 11:10 a.m.