The Dartmouth lightweight crew team finished in third place at the 109th Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship at Cooper River in Camden, N.J., on Saturday. The Ivy League was well represented at the Championship, with the Ancient Eight filling all six of the slots fighting for the men's lightweight national title.
After taking second with a time of 5:53.044 in its first heat, the Big Green advanced to the Grand Final and picked up speed to finish in third place with a significantly improved time of 5:41.860. Yale University took the top spot in a photo finish, edging out Harvard University by just 0.02 seconds.
Dartmouth beat out fourth-place finisher Cornell University by five seconds and also passed League rivals Princeton University and Columbia University, which came in fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Big Green heavyweight team also capped off its season at the IRA National Championship. Dartmouth sent four boats total two to the Petite Finals and two to the Third Level Finals. Every League team was invited to the Championship, comprising eight of the 18 contestants.
The Big Green's best finish came from the varsity four in the Third Level Final. The crew nabbed a seventh-place ranking with 7:03.099, while Washington University took the national title. The varsity eight, also in the Third Level Final, clinched second place in its race, finishing 14th overall in 5:46:021.
The heavyweight freshman eight boat, which competed in the Petite Final, placed 11th nationally, finishing fifth in its race with a time of 5:55.978, with University of California, Berkeley, winning first place overall.
The second varsity eight, racing in the same division, came in 13th overall with a time of 6:02.877.
