GOLD RIVER, Calif. -- The MIT women's lightweight crew varsity four earned the bronze medal to lead MIT on Sunday at the 2026 IRA National Championship regatta on Lake Natoma. The Engineers also earned a fourth-place finish in the 2x grand final and finished sixth in the Varsity 8+ grand final.  

The varsity four earned its second-straight trip to the podium after MIT earned runner-up honors at the 2025 IRA National Championship. MIT has finished in the top five in the varsity four at every IRA National Championship since 2021, including the Engineers' varsity four national championship in 2022. 

LIGHTWEIGHT 2x:  

• Lineup: Avery Reischer-Craft/Katherine Wei 
• Results: 4th of 6 (07:51.107) in the Grand Final 
• Boston University earned gold with an open water victory, as the Terriers (07:36.678) finished over seven seconds ahead of runner-up Wisconsin (07:43.838). Wisconsin had an over-six second advantage on third-place. However, the race for bronze between Radcliffe and MIT came down to 0.795 seconds as Reischer-Craft and Wei made up a nearly five-second gap over the final 500 meters to challenge the Black and White for the podium. Radcliffe finished in 07:49.867, while MIT posted a time of 07:50.662. 

VARSITY FOUR (V4+):  

• Lineup: C. Sophie Thompson; 4. Yagmur Kavukcuoglu; 3. Annabel Noonan; 2. Lillie Beliveau; B. Anna Gluschuk 
• Results: 3rd of 6 (07:31.483) in the Grand Final – BRONZE 
• Princeton (07:20.118) and Boston University (07:25.473) took gold and silver, respectively, but MIT (07:31.483) held off fourth-place Wisconsin to earn the final spot on the podium. BU had the lead at the 500-meter mark, but Princeton overcame a slow start to overtake the Terriers by the 1000 meters. MIT was in second through the first 500 meters and continued to row steadily throughout the remainder of the course to maintain its lead on Wisconsin and earn bronze. Radcliffe (07:37.186) was fifth and Stanford (07:45.046) was sixth.  

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: 6th of 6 (07:00.838) in the Grand Final  
• Princeton (06:40.493) captured gold followed by Radcliffe (06:44.002) and Stanford (06:46.085) on the podium. Boston University (06:49.192), Georgetown (06:53.917) and MIT rounded out the field. MIT was sixth through the first 500 meters and continued to trail the field for the remainder of the race, taking sixth in 07:00.838.  

UP NEXT: 

• MIT will race at the Henley Women's Regatta, June 19-21, on the River Thames in Henley-on-Thames, England. 

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