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Syracuse Advances All Four Boats to the Grand Final at IRA Regatta
5/31/2025 7:48:00 PM | Men's Rowing
It was a historic day on the Cooper River for the Syracuse men's rowing team on Day Two of the IRA Championship Regatta. The Orange advanced all three eights to the Grand Final while the Varsity Four earned a fifth-place finish in Saturday's coxed four finals.
"I thought it was a pretty unbelievable job by the guys," Syracuse head coach Dave Reischman said. "They set a team goal in the fall of having all the boats in the grand final. I'm not going to say I thought it was a realistic goal, but they believed it. They did the work to get it done, and most importantly, they executed on the day. I couldn't be prouder of a group of guys."
The Varsity Eight earned a second-place finish in Semifinal AB crossing in 5:27.04 behind Harvard (5:24.14) and ahead of Princeton (5:30.060) who earned the final spot in Sunday's Grand Final. Northeastern (5:30.98), Stanford (5:34.37) and Cal (5:42.53) head to the Petite Final.
"I think the biggest thing for us was just to believe in the training that we've done to this point," senior coxswain of the Varsity 8 Joseph Biondolillo said. "We've been very close in a lot of races previously, but we've just missed that little extra gear. I think it says a lot about the crew, not just the varsity, but all the crews around the team to come out and execute on the most important race of the year thus far."
The Varsity 8 Grand Final is set for 12:10 p.m. on Sunday. The Orange will line up in Lane 2 with Brown (Lane 1), Washington (Lane 3), Dartmouth (Lane 5) and Princeton (Lane 6).
"All year we've come off the water thinking one piece was missing and it's always that we let the crew slip away, we let them control the race, we let others control our destiny. Today we went out there and play with house money."
In the 2nd Varsity Eight, Syracuse was second behind Cal (5:33.88) and just beat out Brown (5:36.40) by 0.01 seconds. Princeton, Penn and Boston U rounded out the Semifinal AB and will race in the Petite Final.
"I think the most important thing for us today was to let one bad stroke be just one and get back into the next stroke," seven seat of the 2V8 Stevie Chuck said. "We were able to handle the conditions that way and all of us moving as a unit is what got us across the line."
The 2V8 Grand Final is scheduled for 11:10 p.m. Syracuse will line up in Lane 5 and will face Brown, Washington, Cal, Harvard and Yale.
"Going into today we knew the tail wind was going to be a big factor in racing," team captain Cole Nordby said. "Me and [Jack] Gorman in the bow pair knew we had a lot on our shoulders today because the crew that races the cleanest in this kind of condition ends up going the fastest and just being able to not kill the boat speed was really important. We looked at each other before the race and knew we really needed to lock in."
The Third Varsity Eight (3V8) was the final Syracuse boat to qualify for the Grand Finals. Anders Erlandsen sat stroke seat while Sam Fernandez steered the Orange to a second-place finish in Semifinal AB with a time of 5:37.54, 2.3 seconds behind winner Harvard and ahead of Yale (5:38.51), Dartmouth (5:42.48), Northeastern (5:46.13) and Cornell (5:54.26).
"The boys have really been working hard this whole year," said Adam Rajab, Syracuse's lone senior in the 3V8. "This fall semester we set a few goals and one of them was to have all four boats make a Grand Final and it's a really special thing for that to come to fruition. All the boys worked hard to execute, and they made it happen."
Syracuse will race Yale, Cal, Harvard, Washington, and Princeton at 9:40 a.m. The Orange will be in Lane 5.
"We knew it was going to be rough," Erlandsen said. "We knew it was going to be a tough race with competitive crews and tough conditions that we've handled before in practice. So, we just trusted our boat and trusted our rhythm. You know, it wasn't the prettiest, it wasn't the cleanest, but I think it was just a little bit sharper than those other crews and that allowed us to pull ahead and ultimately succeeded when we needed to."
The Varsity Four earned a fifth-place finish crossing the finish in 6:23.52. Washington was first in 6:11.66 while Harvard (6:13.89) and California (6:17.47) earned silver and bronze respectively. Penn was fourth crossing the finish in 6:21.83 and Brown was sixth in 6:29.12.
"Being able to get the coxed four into the Grand Final was an absolute privilege, I've been so lucky to work with some great coaches here that led us into a great spot. We have a group of guys that wanted to put in all the work and to be able to put that fifth-place down in the grand final."
The Orange placed fourth in the Fourth Varsity Eight two weeks ago at Eastern Sprints and earned the sixth-fastest time in the time trial on Friday to earn a spot in the ABC semifinal in the afternoon. The fifth-place finish at the IRA is the best finish for Syracuse since 2007 with seniors Katherine Kelly and Scott Zimmerman in the boat along with three freshman, Michael Gore, Jack Walker and Jack Caldwell.
"I just told them [the freshmen] that they set a really high expectation for yourself going forward," Zimmerman said. "On a serious note, this is something that since I've been here, we've been sort of striving for – not just our varsity to make a grand final but every boat. Every year we have a meeting and that's been the message written on the board in the boathouse. We've never been able to achieve it across all four. So being a part of it and getting all the boats into the grand final has been awesome. These freshmen just prove that the future's bright."
Fans unable to attend the Grand Finals can watch live on Overnght.com or follow live results here. Â
"I think one thing our team does really well from the top to bottom is they are each other's biggest fans. There's not a lot of fall off in the worth people feel in our program. I know our guys were just as excited last night for the Four to make the Grand Final and it kind of set the tone for the other three eights today. It was an absolutely crucial bit of racing by those guys."
For a behind the scenes look at Syracuse men's rowing, follow @CuseMRowing on social media.
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"I thought it was a pretty unbelievable job by the guys," Syracuse head coach Dave Reischman said. "They set a team goal in the fall of having all the boats in the grand final. I'm not going to say I thought it was a realistic goal, but they believed it. They did the work to get it done, and most importantly, they executed on the day. I couldn't be prouder of a group of guys."
The Varsity Eight earned a second-place finish in Semifinal AB crossing in 5:27.04 behind Harvard (5:24.14) and ahead of Princeton (5:30.060) who earned the final spot in Sunday's Grand Final. Northeastern (5:30.98), Stanford (5:34.37) and Cal (5:42.53) head to the Petite Final.
"I think the biggest thing for us was just to believe in the training that we've done to this point," senior coxswain of the Varsity 8 Joseph Biondolillo said. "We've been very close in a lot of races previously, but we've just missed that little extra gear. I think it says a lot about the crew, not just the varsity, but all the crews around the team to come out and execute on the most important race of the year thus far."
The Varsity 8 Grand Final is set for 12:10 p.m. on Sunday. The Orange will line up in Lane 2 with Brown (Lane 1), Washington (Lane 3), Dartmouth (Lane 5) and Princeton (Lane 6).
"All year we've come off the water thinking one piece was missing and it's always that we let the crew slip away, we let them control the race, we let others control our destiny. Today we went out there and play with house money."
In the 2nd Varsity Eight, Syracuse was second behind Cal (5:33.88) and just beat out Brown (5:36.40) by 0.01 seconds. Princeton, Penn and Boston U rounded out the Semifinal AB and will race in the Petite Final.
"I think the most important thing for us today was to let one bad stroke be just one and get back into the next stroke," seven seat of the 2V8 Stevie Chuck said. "We were able to handle the conditions that way and all of us moving as a unit is what got us across the line."
The 2V8 Grand Final is scheduled for 11:10 p.m. Syracuse will line up in Lane 5 and will face Brown, Washington, Cal, Harvard and Yale.
"Going into today we knew the tail wind was going to be a big factor in racing," team captain Cole Nordby said. "Me and [Jack] Gorman in the bow pair knew we had a lot on our shoulders today because the crew that races the cleanest in this kind of condition ends up going the fastest and just being able to not kill the boat speed was really important. We looked at each other before the race and knew we really needed to lock in."
The Third Varsity Eight (3V8) was the final Syracuse boat to qualify for the Grand Finals. Anders Erlandsen sat stroke seat while Sam Fernandez steered the Orange to a second-place finish in Semifinal AB with a time of 5:37.54, 2.3 seconds behind winner Harvard and ahead of Yale (5:38.51), Dartmouth (5:42.48), Northeastern (5:46.13) and Cornell (5:54.26).
"The boys have really been working hard this whole year," said Adam Rajab, Syracuse's lone senior in the 3V8. "This fall semester we set a few goals and one of them was to have all four boats make a Grand Final and it's a really special thing for that to come to fruition. All the boys worked hard to execute, and they made it happen."
Syracuse will race Yale, Cal, Harvard, Washington, and Princeton at 9:40 a.m. The Orange will be in Lane 5.
"We knew it was going to be rough," Erlandsen said. "We knew it was going to be a tough race with competitive crews and tough conditions that we've handled before in practice. So, we just trusted our boat and trusted our rhythm. You know, it wasn't the prettiest, it wasn't the cleanest, but I think it was just a little bit sharper than those other crews and that allowed us to pull ahead and ultimately succeeded when we needed to."
The Varsity Four earned a fifth-place finish crossing the finish in 6:23.52. Washington was first in 6:11.66 while Harvard (6:13.89) and California (6:17.47) earned silver and bronze respectively. Penn was fourth crossing the finish in 6:21.83 and Brown was sixth in 6:29.12.
"Being able to get the coxed four into the Grand Final was an absolute privilege, I've been so lucky to work with some great coaches here that led us into a great spot. We have a group of guys that wanted to put in all the work and to be able to put that fifth-place down in the grand final."
The Orange placed fourth in the Fourth Varsity Eight two weeks ago at Eastern Sprints and earned the sixth-fastest time in the time trial on Friday to earn a spot in the ABC semifinal in the afternoon. The fifth-place finish at the IRA is the best finish for Syracuse since 2007 with seniors Katherine Kelly and Scott Zimmerman in the boat along with three freshman, Michael Gore, Jack Walker and Jack Caldwell.
"I just told them [the freshmen] that they set a really high expectation for yourself going forward," Zimmerman said. "On a serious note, this is something that since I've been here, we've been sort of striving for – not just our varsity to make a grand final but every boat. Every year we have a meeting and that's been the message written on the board in the boathouse. We've never been able to achieve it across all four. So being a part of it and getting all the boats into the grand final has been awesome. These freshmen just prove that the future's bright."
Fans unable to attend the Grand Finals can watch live on Overnght.com or follow live results here. Â
"I think one thing our team does really well from the top to bottom is they are each other's biggest fans. There's not a lot of fall off in the worth people feel in our program. I know our guys were just as excited last night for the Four to make the Grand Final and it kind of set the tone for the other three eights today. It was an absolutely crucial bit of racing by those guys."
For a behind the scenes look at Syracuse men's rowing, follow @CuseMRowing on social media.
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