The men’s lightweight Varsity 8+ won the Knecht Cup in a time of 5:56.27, followed by Drexel (5:58.79) which is currently ranked No. 15 in the IRCA/IRA Men’s Heavyweight Varsity 8+ Poll. La Salle was third (5:59.43) as Mercyhurst (5:59.70), George Washington (6:03.45), and Trinity (6:08.84) completed the field. Heading into Sunday’s race, MIT had the third fastest time in 5:44 as Mercyhurst and La Salle (racing side-by-side in their semifinal) both came in at 5:42 while Drexel was close behind in 5:45. The Engineers trailed Drexel and Mercyhurst in the first 200 meters, but they slowly moved back. Around the 1000-meter mark MIT widened the gap, just barely reaching open water between itself and Drexel by 1500 meters. Although Drexel and Mercyhurst closed the gap, the Engineers held them off enough to win the race by 2.52 seconds.
