Wisconsin Badgers
IRA National Championship
Badgers finish first day of IRA national championships
May 29, 2026 | Men's Rowing
Wisconsin men's crew advances to semifinal races
GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The Wisconsin men's rowing team opened the 2026 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships on Lake Natoma on Friday.Â
The No.12 Badgers kicked off the morning heats with a time of 5:50.730 for 2000 meters, to finish in fourth place in the varsity eight. Harvard found the finish line first in 5:42.410. Trailing behind Harvard was Northeastern at 5:45.270 and Boston University at 5:48.390.
Wisconsin's fourth-place finish put UW's top boat in Saturday's CD Semifinal.
UW's second varsity eight also placed fourth in its heat and will continue on to its CD Semifinal on Saturday. Wisconsin crossed the 2000-meter finish line in 5:56.000, with Princeton, Brown and Cornell taking the top-three spots.
The Badgers' third varsity eight boat finished in fifth place at 6:10.410, advancing to the CD Semifinals. Princeton, Syracuse, Boston and Cornell took the top-four spots in the heat.
UW's varsity four opened its championships by taking 24th in the time trial at 6:35.936. Wisconsin's finish advanced the varsity four boat to Friday afternoon's DE Semifinal, where they took fourth.
They will race in Saturday's Final for places 25-29.
Straight from the Shore
Head Coach Beau Hoopman
"It's difficult to beat your ranking and advance to the A/B semi when you're ranked above 12, especially in crosswind conditions like today. The better seeds will get the better lanes, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't make a race out of it. Both the 1V and the 2V had good overall races where they made up a good amount of margin from sprints, but both also had aspects of the race they'd like to improve. The 1V didn't have a great start and found themselves in last thru the first 500, but clawed back to overlap with a crew that beat us by over four seconds two weeks ago. Â
The 2V had their best race of the season so far, great start and great finish, but they lulled in the middle thousand. They're young and constantly learning and improving, so their expectations keep increasing with each race. Both are looking to make a positive change for the semis. Every place matters, and we're hoping to beat our pre-race ranking by the end."
UP NEXT: The Badgers race again on Saturday at the 2026 IRA National Championships with semifinal and final races.
Saturday Schedule
Varsity Eight CD Semifinal – 9:44 a.m. CT (Columbia, Wisconsin, Drexel, Navy, MIT, Oregon State)
Second Varsity Eight CD Semifinal – 10:00 a.m. (Wisconsin, Holy Cross, Columbia, Georgetown, Oregon State)
Third Varsity Eight CD Semifinal – 10:16 a.m. (Columbia, Drexel, Wisconsin, Holy Cross, La Salle)
Varsity Four E Final - 10:32 a.m. (Columbia, Wisconsin, Drexel, Bates, Holy Cross)
2026 IRA National Championships
May 29 (Day 1)
Lake Natoma
Gold River, Calif.
2000 meters
Varsity Eight (24 entries) Heat 3 – Top 3 to AB Semifinals, Rest to CD Semifinals
1. Harvard, 5:42.410; 2. Northeastern, 5:45.270; 3. Boston, 5:48.390; 4. Wisconsin, 5:50.730; 5. Holy Cross, 5:57.230; 6. MIT, 6:09.210
UW Lineup – Coxswain Charles Ramquist, Ethan Schumacher, Joe Siddall, Lukas Weinhold, Andrew Soman, Elias Strasman, Thomas Leuty, Ruffin Bryant, Henry Griffin.
Second Varsity Eight (23 entries) Heat 2 – Top 3 to AB Semifinals, Rest to CD Semifinals
1. Princeton, 5:46.990; 2. Brown, 5:49.410; 3. Cornell, 5:53.800; 4. Wisconsin, 5:56.000; 5. Temple, 6:02.920; 6. UC San Diego, 6:15.440
UW Lineup – Coxswain Taj Chunawala, Raul Gupta, Luke Lehmann, Benjamin Cook, Isaac Rockwell, Julian Kuehn, William Carey, Jeremiah Lesniak, William Harper
Third Varsity Eight (21 entries) Heat 3 - Top 3 to AB Semifinals, Rest to CD Final
1. Princeton, 5:54.380; 2. Syracuse, 5:56.000; 3. Boston, 5:56.890; 4. Cornell, 6:05.160; 5. Wisconsin, 6:10.410
UW Lineup – Coxswain Alexander Quinn, Maxwell McCartney, Henry Wurdell, Benjamin Whelan, Connor Treccia, Oliver Zanetich, Lincoln Boehm, Patrick Trihey, Haakon Rosholt
Varsity Four (29 entries) DE Semifinal – Top 2 to Final 4, Next 2 to Final 5, Remainder to Final 6
1. Santa Clara, 6:37.330; 2. Trinity, 6:490; 3. Georgetown, 6:42.740 4. Wisconsin, 6:46.130; 5. Bates, 6:53.260; 6. Holy Cross, 6:55.220
Time Trial
1. California, 6:05.970; 2. MRST, 6:12.650; 3. Penn, 6:13.906… 24. Wisconsin, 6:35.936
UW Lineup – Coxswain Dominic Schuster, Hunter Kokkinen, Jack Wagner, Alexander Schwartz, Bergen Peters
