Women's Lightweight Crew Advances All Boats to Grand Finals at IRA National Championship

GOLD RIVER, Calif. -- The MIT women's lightweight crew team advanced to the Grand Final in three events on Saturday at the IRA National Championship regatta on Lake Natoma. The Engineers earned third place finishes in the team's opening 2x, Varsity 4+ and Varsity 8+ heats to secure a spot in all three Grand Finals.

LIGHTWEIGHT 2x:

Lineup: Avery Reischer-Craft/Katherine Wei
Results: 3rd of 4 (08:02.180) - Advanced to Women's Lightweight 2x Grand Final
Boston University (07:49.710) finished with an open water victory over runner-up Princeton (07:57.130) as the top two crews comfortably advanced to the final. Reischer-Craft and Wei had a strong start, matching Princeton through the first 500 meters. The MIT duo then had to contend with fourth-place Gordon through the middle 1000 meters but secured third place in 08:02.180 with Gordon fourth in 08:04.610.

VARSITY FOUR (V4+):

Lineup: C. Sophie Thompson; 4. Yagmur Kavukcuoglu; 3. Annabel Noonan; 2. Lillie Beliveau; B. Anna Gluschuk
Results: 3rd of 4 (07:45.300) - Advanced to Women's Lightweight Varsity 4+ Grand Final
Princeton earned an open water victory over second-place Wisconsin in 07:34.010. Wisconsin (07:40.210) was just over five seconds ahead of MIT in third place (07:45.300) while MIT finished comfortably ahead of fourth-place Sacred Heart (08:01.690) to earn a spot in the final.

LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT (V8+):

Lineup: C. Katelyn Lee; 8. Emily Knapp; 7. Anna Chan; 6. Josephine Williams; 5. Callie Karjane; 4. Olivia Stinson; 3. Katherine Jankowski; 2. Liane Xu; B. Calder Shen
Results: 3rd of 4 (07:02.220) - Advanced to Women's Lightweight Varsity Eight Grand Final
Princeton earned a wire-to-wire victory over runner-up Boston University with a time of 06:44.360. BU finished in 06:50.580 to take second. BU had open water on MIT but the Engineers had an open water advantage on fourth-place Sacred Heart as MIT finished in 07:02.220 to advance to the final and Sacred Heart was fourth (07:22.170).

UP NEXT:

The MIT lightweight women will race in three Grand Finals on Sunday, beginning with Avery Reischer-Craft and Katherine Wei in the 2x Grand Final at 8:08 AM local time/11:08 AM EDT.
The Varsity 4+ Grand Final will follow at 8:32 AM local time/11:32 AM EDT.
The Varsity 8+ Grand Final takes place at 10:38 AM local time/1:38 PM EDT.

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