June 4, 2009

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Yale's lightweight squad heads to Sacramento, Calif., this weekend for the 107th IRA Regatta. The lightweights will race in two events: the varsity lightweight eight and the heavyweight varsity four. The setup of this year's regatta may have thinned out the men's varsity lightweight eight event, as that race is now listed as a 7-boat final-only. Because the IRA now excludes non-varsity program schools, invites in the lightweight eights were extended to schools that could not accept them. Thus, the National Championship race will come down to a single shot for seven EARC crews. The Yale varsity will thus have an opportunity to better the 5th place finish it earned at Eastern Sprints.

The Yale four will first race on Thursday at 10:36 a.m. PST in heat one of the open four event. They race UC Irvine, UCSD, Harvard, Florida Tech and Drexel.

The varsity eight does not race until Saturday, June 6 at 1:00 p.m. PST in the grand final of that event.

Live results of all racing at the IRA can be found here.

Report filed by Yale Sports Publicity