Washington Men’s Rowing sweeps IRA National Championships

The Washington Huskies men’s rowing teams pulled off a clean sweep at the IRA National Championships.

The Boys in the Boat are back and for a nation’s best No. 20 time in school history, the Washington Huskies are the national champions in men’s varsity eight rowing. The team also took the titles in the second and third varsity eights along with the varsity fours to bring to Montlake, for the No. 18 time, the James Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy for overall points champion.

The Huskies were dominant at the ICA National Championships, winning every single heat, semi-final, and final on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey over the three-day regatta.

“I feel this group might have come further than any other group I’ve coached,” said coach Michael Callahan, who has now won eight national titles. “It was such a joy to coach them. They were completely committed to doing everything really well. That was the magic. They were a bunch of role models doing the right things.”

The Huskies varsity eight were led by the Pac-12’s Athlete of the Year, Max Heid, in a race that started out close in the first 500 meters with Washington trailing California. The Huskies took the lead in the second 500 meters and never looked back. They came across the finish line in a final time of 5:27.233, 1.743 seconds ahead of Harvard.

Washington’s second varsity eight had something to prove after almost losing in their semi-final. The crew took the lead from the start and won despite the Princeton boat making contact with them in the final 500 meters. The Huskies finished in 5:34.317 minutes and gave Washington its No. 31 Kennedy Challenge Cup.

The varsity three crew won over Princeton by 2.499 seconds and took home the No. 30 Stewards Cup victory in school history, while the varsity four won the Eric W. Will Trophy for time No. 14.

After George Clooney’s “Boys in the Boat” was released in late 2023, the Huskies showed why rowing has such a strong legacy at Washington.