6/4/2005 - Men's Lightweight Crew
Lightweights Place Sixth at IRA
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CAMDEN, N.J. -- After placing second during its morning semifina racel, the Navy lightweight crew team's varsity boat placed sixth in a very tight grand final at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship, Saturday on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
Harvard, winners of the Eastern Sprints title, topped Navy by four seconds in the semifinal race. The Crimson recorded a time of 5:59.61 to finish 3.5 seconds in front of the Mids (6:03.14). Harvard, Navy and third-place Georgetown (6:05.9) all advanced out of the first semifinal race to the grand final.
"We felt pretty good about our semifinal race," said Navy head coach Rob Friedrich. "We finished second with a good time and without expending a lot of extra energy."
Only five seconds would separate the first-place team from the sixth-place team in the very close and very fast grand final. Yale, who posted the fastest time of the semifinal round (5:55.85), won the grand final with a time of 5:41.89. Cornell finished in second place with a time of 5:43.39, followed by Penn in third at 5:44.71. Harvard would end up in fourth place with a time of 5:45.45, followed less than three-tenths of a second later by Georgetown at 5:45.82. Navy would finish in sixth place with a clocking of 5:46.9.
"The final was close the entire course," said Friedrich. "We were right in the mix early, then fell back a bit before making a late charge.
"It's hard on the guys, knowing we had only one loss during the regular season, but that is how our league is. Everyone is fast and everyone improves each week."
