'Cuse crews conclude first day of IRA regatta

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WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - The No. 18 Syracuse men's rowing varsity eight crew finished third in its repechage after placing fifth in its opening heat on day one of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Regatta on Friday on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, New Jersey. The Orange's top boat will row in Saturday's semifinals for a spot in either the third or fourth level final.

Head coach Save Reischman's Orange had three crews in action. The second varsity eight posted a second-place finish in its afternoon rep after finishing third in its morning heat, while the third varsity eight placed third in both its heat and its rep.

"I think we rowed to our speed," Reischman said. "We executed well on all levels, it's just where we are at right now. We challenged the guys to go out harder in the first 1,000 in the afternoon and they did."

SU's V8 and 2V8 will race for berths in Sunday's third level final in Saturday's semifinals, while the 3V8 will be looking to make Sunday's grand final.

Saturday Semifinal Schedule
10:00 a.m. - 3V8 semifinal 1 (lane 6 vs. Navy, Princeton, Cal, Brown, Dartmouth)
* Top three advance to Sunday's grand final, bottom three go to Sunday's petite final.

12:00 p.m. - V8 semifinal 4 (lane 2 vs. Gonzaga, George Washington, FIT, Hobart, San Diego)
* Top three advance to Sunday's third level final, bottom three go to Sunday's fourth level final.

12:15 p.m. - 2V8 semifinal 3 (lane 3 vs. San Diego, Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Hobart)
* Top three advance to Sunday's third level final, bottom three go to Sunday's fourth level final.

Follow the Action
Live video of the regatta will be available online all three days. CLICK HERE to access the live stream.

Live results will be available throughout the day at:
http://ira.qra.org/

Fans can also join the conversation on Twitter:
Syracuse Men's Rowing: @CuseRowing
Syracuse Athletics: @Cuse
Syracuse Alumni Rowing Association: @SyracuseRowing

Friday's Repechages Recap
In the V8 rep, Syracuse, Cornell and Penn jumped out and were racing tightly early in the race as the Orange used a high stroke rate to stay even with the Big Red and Quakers over the first 750 meters. At the midpoint of the race, Cornell began to separate itself from the other crews with Penn taking control of the second place. The Big Red won the race and the spot in the top two semifinals in 5:36.744 with Penn second in 5:39.414, Syracuse third in 5:44.306 and Holy Cross fourth in 5:45.056.

By the 500-meter mark of the 2V8 rep, Penn had jumped out to an almost one length lead on second-place Syracuse, who had a deck on third-place George Washington. Those gaps would continue to slowly widen until the 1,500-meter mark when the Orange (5:50.336) mounted a charge in the final 500 to reduce the margin to three-quarters of a length behind the Quakers (5:47.775) at the finish line and open water over GW (5:55.259) and San Diego (6:11.907).

Dartmouth won the 3V8 rep and the spot in the top semifinals in a time of 5:49.521, with second-place Yale (5:53.528) holding off third-place Syracuse (5:56.187) while Holy Cross (5:59.793), Harvard (6:00.922) and Drexel (6:18.831) rounded out spots four through six.

"We will try to go out aggressive again tomorrow and see if we can carry it further down the race course," Reischman said.

Lineups
V8
Cox: Michael Sparta
Stroke: Mac Zink
7: Kyle Rogers
6: Jake Martens
5: Patrick O'Shaughnessy-Hunter
4: Cameron Bierwith
3: A.J. Abell
2: Jonathan Dawson
Bow: Conor Finnegan

2V8
Cox: Liz Abraham
Stroke: Ryan McCarry
7: Douglas Wetzel
6: Samuel Jasper
5: Aleks Staprans
4: Andrew Reichard
3: Kyle McKenney
2: Jason Zajdel
Bow: Joshua Hockenberry

3V8
Cox: Christian Mund
Stroke: Michael Tobin
7: Tom Johnson III
6: Alexander Will
5: Madison Weitekamp
4: James Schiera
3: David Conroy
2: Samuel Oster
Bow: Chris Nedlik

Syracuse University Athletics

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