WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – Wisconsin men's rowing opened the 2022 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships Friday on Mercer Lake and sent its varsity eight and second varsity eight boats into Saturday semifinal races.

Both boats fell short of directly advancing out of morning heats, finishing third in the varsity and fourth in the second varsity in races – the top boats advanced directly to the semifinals. Both won their afternoon repechage heats, as the needed to in order to reach the top 12.

The third varsity eight placed fifth in the morning heat and fourth in the afternoon repechage and will race in the C Final on Sunday.

In the varsity four, UW placed 17th out of 25 entries in the morning time trial, then ended up in Saturday's C Final for places 13-18 from afternoon semifinal action. They placed sixth in their ABC semifinal.

Straight from the Lake
Head Coach Chris Clark
"Pretty good day for the Badgers. We're a really top-heavy team right now. COVID really hurt us with walk-on freshmen since we weren't allowed to have any in 2020 and there hasn't been SOAR since 2019 which is a great resource for us to get eager young rowers and that hasn't happened since 2019. We are missing five or six sophomores who don't exist on our team and that would help add depth."

On the varsity and second varsity eights
"In the first eight heat, we had a poor start and finished about 1.8 seconds back on Princeton. We could have directly qualified possibly if we had a better start.

"The second varsity had a really poor race, they were fourth in their heat. They came back and blistered in their repechage which they had to win to reach the A/B Semifinal.

"Both the 1 and the 2 varsity are both in the top 12 already. In today's modern rowing with internationals abounding that's the minimum for us to feel good that we are holding some serve here. Now we have to chip away at a top-10 finish, that would be great, but we'll see.

"Tomorrow is tough again, we have semifinals with three going to the A Final in both those events.

"At the very top we're poised and in a good position. It's not easy to break through to the A Final, but we're happy to be in the thick of it still."

On the third varsity eight and varsity four
"The third boat, with five freshmen, couldn't quite get it done to be in the A/B Semi, so they're in the third-level final. There's five freshmen there who have done a great job all year.

"The four needed to be in the top 18 in the time trial to make the three heats of six. Just to make the top 18, I was super impressed. They got left a little bit in this afternoon's racing, but they'll conclude tomorrow. I thought they did a good for a fairly underpowered boat. They had a lot of spirit and did quite well."
 
 2022 IRA National Championships
June 3, 2022
Mercer Lake
West Windsor, N.J.
2000 meters

Varsity Eight
Repechage 3 (Winner to A/B Semifinal, rest to C/D Semifinal)
1. Wisconsin, 5:37.283; 2. Drexel, 5:39.281; 3. Marist, 6:00.249

Heat 3 (Top 2 to A/B Semifinal, rest to afternoon repechage)
1. Brown, 5:37.654; 2. Princeton, 5:42.046; 3. Wisconsin, 5:43.868; 4. Navy, 5:49.828; 5. Colgate, 5:50.652; 6. Temple, 5:54.114
UW Lineup – Coxswain James Catalano, Adam Wehking, Joseph Cleary, Edward Brody, Breck Duncan, Dylan Green, Galen Quinn, Isaac Krahn, Olin Frederiks
 
Second Varsity Eight
Repechage 2 (Winner to A/B Semifinal, rest to C/D Semifinal)
1. Wisconsin, 5:44.770; 2. Navy, 5:47.218; 3. Oregon State, 5:59.948; 4. Marist, 6:12.882

Heat 4 (Top 2 to A/B Semifinal, rest to afternoon repechage)
1. Dartmouth, 5:42.801; 2. Brown, 5:46.059; 3. Cornell, 5:54.761; 4. Wisconsin, 5:56.491; 5. Santa Clara, 6:11.849; 6. MIT, 6:14.497
UW Lineup - Coxswain Jonah Rane, Aidan Schmidt, Michael Horan, Sebastian Murrell, Garrison Waugh, Walter Stanwood, Lorenzo Miller, Josh Wehking, Matthew King
 
Third Varsity Eight
Repechage 1 (Top three to A/B Semifinal, rest to C Final)
1. Boston University, 5:47.959; 2. Penn, 5:50.971; 3. Navy, 5:51.291; 4. Wisconsin, 5:55.021; 5. Drexel, 6:01.313

Heat 1 (Top three to A/B Semifinal, rest to repechage)
1. Dartmouth, 5:51.492; 2. Washington, 5:54.706; 3. Princeton, 5:59.430; 4. Penn, 6:03.800; 5. Wisconsin, 6:10.952
UW Lineup – Coxswain Grayson VanLue, William Russell, John O'Brien, Jeremy Falstad, Will Klipstine, Dylan Knanishu, Luke Truog, Ethan Dooley, Michael Santry
 
Varsity Four
Semifinal 2 (Top 2 to Saturday A Final, 3-4 to B Final, 5-6 to C Final)
1. FIT, 6:21.415; 2. Harvard, 6:22.235; 3. LaSalle, 6:23.975; 4. California, 6:24.985; 5. Hobart, 6:32.775; 6. Wisconsin, 6:42.811

Time Trial (25 entries)
1. Princeton, 6:07.077; 2. FIT, 6:10.921; 3. Georgetown, 6:10.979…; 17. Wisconsin, 6:23.509
UW Lineup – Coxswain Connor Slawin, Jack Turco, Sam Crowley, Joshua Barth, Henry Voeller

SATURDAY SCHEDULE (WATCH || LIVE RESULTS)
Varsity Eight A/B Semifinal (7:50 a.m. CT - Top 3 to Grand Final) - Cornell, Syracuse, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Wisconsin
Second Varsity Eight A/B Semifinal (8 a.m. CT - Top 3 to Grand Final) - Boston University, Brown, California, Harvard, Princeton, Wisconsin
Varsity Four C Final (9:50 a.m. CT - Places 13-18) - Wisconsin, Syracuse, Navy, Williams, Hobart, Oklahoma