Men's Rowing | June 3, 2022
WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – The La Salle men's rowing team produced a strong first day on the waters of Mercer Lake in the 2022 IRA National Championship Regatta on Friday afternoon, the Varsity 4+ boat being the first Explorer boat to qualify for the event since 2001.
With time trials set for the latter stages of the morning, La Salle's Varsity 4+ boat consisting of coxswain
Trevor Fawcett,
Jimmy McInerney,
Shawn Donohue,
James White and
Joe Yeager was one of 27 entries competing for a trip to the semifinals later in the afternoon, only the top 18 progressing to the ABC semis with the rest dropping to the DE semis.
The Explorers cruised in their first showing of the day, producing the fifth fastest time in the trials with a finish of 6:13.025, six seconds off the fastest boat in Princeton. The Explorers produced the fastest boat in the city, Drexel and Penn trailing by more than 17 seconds. The crew also beat Ivy League sides Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard and Cornell along with regular national contenders Cal and Northeastern.
With the qualification to ABC semis under their belts, the Explorers moved to the semis as Friday afternoon action was wrapping up as one of the last races of the day. La Salle needed a top two finish to grant themselves a spot in the Grand Finals, competing against a familiar foe in FIT, who was the only team to produce a quicker time than the V4+ boat at the Dad Vail Regatta only a few weeks ago.
Sitting in fourth after the first 1500 meters, the Explorers looked for one last surge to push themselves into the top two. Despite trailing by more than 3.5 seconds behind California, the Explorers used the second quickest split in the field to erase their deficit, passing the Golden Bears to head into third. The last gasp proved just short of their target, La Salle unable to catch up to Harvard as the Explorers finished just 2.5 seconds behind first place FIT but remained in third, qualifying for Saturday's Petite Finals in the process.
The Explorers look to finish strong in their final race of the season on Saturday, with Petite Finals set to take off at 11:30 a.m.
RESULTS
Men's Varsity 4+ Time Trials
1 Princeton 06:07.077
2 FIT 06:10.921
3 Georgetown 06:10.979
4 Washington 06:11.371
5 La Salle 06:13.025
6 Williams 06:14.403
7 Dartmouth 06:14.642
8 California 06:15.124
9 Holy Cross 06:15.479
10 Brown 06:16.841
11 Harvard 06:17.765
12 Jacksonville 06:18.033
13 Northeastern 06:18.275
14 Hobart 06:19.803
15 Naval Academy 06:21.915
16 Oklahoma City 06:22.309
17 Wisconsin 06:23.509
18 Syracuse 06:25.495
19 Cornell 06:26.695
20 Marietta 06:28.711
21 Drexel 06:30.251
22 Penn 06:31.464
23 Catholic 06:32.777
24 Tufts 06:38.393
25 Marist 06:42.523
Mercyhurst Scratch
UC San Diego Scratch
Men's Varsity 4+ Semis (Top 2 in Semi ABC to A Final, Next 2 to B Final, Remainder to C Final)
| 1 |
FIT (Kelmelis, A.) |
06:21.415 |
|
| 2 |
Harvard (Burke, H.) |
06:22.235 |
00.820 |
| 3 |
La Salle Rowing (McInerney, J.) |
06:23.975 |
02.560 |
| 4 |
California |
06:24.985 |
03.570 |
| 5 |
Hobart |
06:32.775 |
11.360 |
| 6 |
Wisconsin (Zitko, J.) |
06:42.811 |
21.396 |
