WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – Three boats placing 15th on the final day of the 2023 IRA National Championships helped Wisconsin's men's rowing take 15th as a team on Sunday on Mercer Lake.

After three days of racing, the Badgers came in 15th place out of 24 teams with a total of 120 team points. California captured the national title over Washington and Yale with 288 team points.

Wisconsin had their first, second and third variety eight boats racing on Sunday and all three finished third in their respective C finals for places 13-18. That meant the Badgers took 15th in each event. 

Straight from the Lake
Head Coach Chris Clark
"We took 15th across the board in our three events. Even in the third level final, it's good to beat some crews. At the beginning of every year I predict where we could place based on early observations. It's a cold calculation without any 'I hope' or 'we wish' involved. I put us in the middle eight zone of the 24 qualifiers which is exactly where we ended up."

"The sport has changed so radically in the past decade or so that our competitive recruit freshmen are better than any senior we have. It's a torque-based sport and California, the winner, was likely about 15 seconds better than we were on the erg and sure enough that's what they beat us by. Twenty-first century men's rowing is incredibly fast and without the ability to world-wide recruit we scrape, scheme, scratch and sniff out the talent we can get and always hope for the best outcome."

"We have three freshmen this year better than any we've had in awhile so this summer will be big for them and all the other returners. Sometimes, it literally takes just one guy, one rower who's wired differently than most that never settles for anything but the lead. We may have one guy. Stay tuned."

2023 IRA National Championships
June 4, 2022
Mercer Lake
West Windsor, N.J.
2000 meters
Full Results

Ten Eyck Trophy Standings
1. California, 288; 2. Washington, 273; 3. Yale, 253; 4. Princeton, 236; 5. Harvard, 233; 6. Brown, 223; 7. Dartmouth, 218; 8. Syracuse, 215; 9. Northeastern, 186; 10. Boston University; 11. Pennsylvania, 169; 12. Cornell, 166; 13. Stanford, 133; 14. Navy, 131; 15. Wisconsin, 120; 16. Drexel, 120; 17. UC San Diego, 82; 18. LaSalle, 71; 19. Columbia, 60; 20. Oregon State, 54; 21. Santa Clara, 47; 22. Georgetown, 44; 23. Colgate, 25; 24. MIT, 5

Varsity Eight
Mens Collegiate Varsity 8+ Final 3 (Places 13-18)
1. Boston, 5:44.166; 2. Drexel, 5:45.316; 3. Wisconsin, 5:46.090; 4. Navy; 5:46.906; 5.Columbia, 5:49.352; 6. La Salle, 5:55.848
UW Lineup – Coxswain Jonah Rane, Aidan Schmidt, Will Klipstine, Dylan Green, Breck Duncan, Joseph Cleary, Michael Horan, Sebastian Murrell, Garrison Waugh

Second Varsity Eight
Mens Collegiate Varsity 2nd 8+ Final 3 (Places 13-18)
1. Stanford, 5:56.739; 2. Navy, 5:58.401; 3. Wisconsin, 5:59.769; 4. La Salle, 6:02.883; 5. Drexel, 6:04.961; 6. UC San Diego, 6:07.859
UW Lineup - Coxswain Grayson VanLue, Elias Strasman, Olin Frederiks, Luke Truog, Lucas Farmer, Walter Stanwood, Andrew Soman, Matthew King, Josh Wehking
 
Third Varsity Eight
Mens Collegiate Varsity 3rd 8+ Final 3 (Places 13-18)
1. Cornell, 6:00.672; 2. Drexel, 6:11.520; 3. Wisconsin, 6:13.808; 4. Oregon State, 6:14.426; 5. UC San Diego, 6:24.028; 6. Santa Clara, 6:27.946
UW Lineup – Coxswain Henry Benton, Lukas Weinhold, Briggs Clarke, Jack O'Brien, Dylan Knanishu, Joshua Barth, Daniel Hintzman, Bergen Peters, Ethan Dooley