GOLD RIVER, Calif. – With ideal conditions on Lake Natoma, the Northeastern men's rowing team took care of business on the first day of the IRA National Championships, advancing all three eights to the A/B Semifinals.
 
Saturday racing gets underway at 8:48 a.m. (PT) with the first varsity followed by the 2V (9:04 a.m.) and 3V (9:36 a.m.) in their semifinal races before the varsity four takes the water at 11:04 a.m. (PT) for the B Final after competing in a time trial and semifinal on Friday.
 
Northeastern and Harvard quickly established control of the first varsity race, with the Huskies and Crimson bolting out to an early lead on the field and staying neck-and-neck with each other through the opening 500-meters. Harvard would go up by two seats during the second 500 with Northeastern comfortably in second place nearly a full length ahead of third place Boston University with its spot in Saturday's A/B Semifinal now secure. It was cruise control from there as Harvard maintained its lead down the course to take the heat at 5:42.410 just ahead of the Huskies at 5:45.270. 
 
Northeastern advances to the A/B Semifinal on Saturday when the Huskies will go up against Washington, Princeton, Dartmouth, Syracuse and Yale with the top three finishers advancing to the Grand Final.
 
The second varsity race saw Harvard and Navy out ahead slightly with Northeastern close behind in third early in the race. As the Crimson moved away from the field in the middle 1000-meters, it became a race for second between the Huskies and Penn, with less than a second separating the crews at the midway mark of the race. Northeastern made a move in the third 500 to take a three-seat lead on the Quakers to take the second spot at 5:47.460 while cutting into Harvard's lead (5:45.870) late.
 
The 2V will race on Saturday against Washington, California, Brown, Yale and Cornell in its A/B Semifinal.
 
California wasted no time in taking control of the third varsity heat, leaving Northeastern and Penn battling for second once again. A strong push from the Huskies in the second 500 gave Northeastern a two-seat advantage approaching the 1000-meter mark, but a response from Penn in the third 500 helped the Quakers overtake NU for second with 500-meters to go. As Penn solidified its second-place position, the Huskies saw Navy begin to creep up looking to steal the final spot in the A/B Semifinal, but Northeastern was able to hold off the Midshipmen for third at 5:56.710.  
 
The 3V advances to the A/B Semifinal, where Northeastern will go up against Harvard, Washington, Syracuse, Penn and Yale.
 
After finishing eighth in the morning time trial to advance to the A/B/C Semifinal, the varsity four saw Washington and FIT out quickly in the afternoon semifinal as Northeastern settled into the race. The Huskies found their rhythm in the second 500, though, to fight back into it. As Washington and Marist maintained control in the second half of the race, Northeastern caught FIT for third place before setting its sights on the Red Foxes looking for some late heroics, but the Huskies ran out of water to take third at 6:40.610.
 
Northeastern moves on to the B Final where they will square off against Syracuse, Cornell, Jacksonville, Boston University and Dartmouth.
 

	First Varsity - Heat	Second Varsity - Heat	Third Varsity - Heat	Varsity Four - A/B/C Semifinal
	1. Harvard - 5:42.410	1. Harvard - 5:45.870	1. California - 5:52.000	1. Washington - 6:32.820
	2. Northeastern - 5:45.270	2. Northeastern - 5:47.460	2. Penn - 5:54.750	2. Marist - 6:34.720
	3. Boston University - 5:48.390	3. Penn - 5:48.660	3. Northeastern - 5:56.710	3. Northeastern - 6:40.610
	4. Wisconsin - 5:50.730	4. Holy Cross - 5:59.270	4. Navy - 5:58.270	4. Jacksonville - 6:42.230
	5. Holy Cross - 5:57.230	5. Navy - 5:59.360	5. Holy Cross - 6:07.860	5. FIT - 6:44.480
	6. MIT - 6:09.210	6. Oregon State - 6:13.450		6. Saint Joseph's - 6:44.930
	- -	- -	- -	- -
C	Alex Stamas	Connor Burke	Nick Walding	AJ Hwangbo
S	Krystof Janac	Riley Putnam	Miles Kramer	Will Donovan
7	Alexander Willott	Brandon Mark	Charlie McLaren	Cooper Rehl
6	Mark Kakoma	Ned Botherway	Franklin Baron	Daniel Kelly
5	Edward Lopas	Luca Mezzanotte	Logan Smith	William Van Nice
4	Julian Leonhardt	Chase Brown	Max Cossill
3	Aidan Murphy	Finn Houghton	Giovanni Santaniello
2	Maximilian Brill	Max Jarvie	Marcus Mantecon
B	Luke Hickling	Harry Oliver	Michael Kourakos