Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
IRA Lightweight National Championship
Bucknell Women's Rowing's Lightweight Eight Finishes Second in Heat, Advances to IRA National Championship Regatta Grand Final for Eighth Straight Year
6/1/2013 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
June 1, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Lake Natoma) - The Bucknell women's rowing lightweight eight opened competition at the IRA National Championship Regatta on Saturday and earned a spot in the Grand Final for an eighth consecutive year. The Bison finished second in their four-boat heat Saturday morning to automatically advance to Sunday's Grand Final.
The top two boats in Bucknell's heat earned automatic berths in the Grand Final and the Bison finished second to Stanford, the winner of the last three IRA lightweight eight titles. Bucknell and Stanford will be joined in the Grand Final by Radcliffe and Wisconsin. Georgetown, MIT and Princeton will race in Saturday afternoon's repechage to decide the final two Grand Final participants.
Bucknell, Georgetown, Princeton, Radcliffe, Stanford and Wisconsin have made up the six-boat Grand Final at the IRA Regatta each of the last six years. Wisconsin and Stanford have each won three crowns and Bucknell one since the Bison started competing at the event in 2006.
In Saturday's race, Bucknell was within 1.21 seconds of Stanford halfway through the race, but the Cardinal finished with an advantage of more than five seconds.
The Bison have had plenty of success at the IRA Regatta in recent years with the lightweight eight finishing sixth in 2006, first in 2007, fourth in 2008, second in 2009, fifth in 2010 and 2011 and second a year ago.
Sunday's Grand Final is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. Eastern.
Varsity Lightweight Eight Results
Heat 2 (top 2 to Grand Final)
1. Stanford - 6:38.387
2. Bucknell - 6:43.696
3. Princeton - 6:46.783
4. MIT - 6:58.842
