Sunshine State to Showcase IRA Challengers

BY CHIP DAVIS

The 2022 IRA National Championship crews that placed second, third, and fourth will face off Saturday, April 1, in the Sunshine State Invitational at Nathan Benderson Park, in Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.

Yale, Brown, and Washington were runners-up to Cal last year, and this season-starting showdown will serve as a sort of challengers’ cup to see which crew becomes the favorite to challenge Cal at the end of the racing season, June 2 to 4, at the IRA on Mercer Lake, in West Windsor, N.J.

“Seeing them early is beneficial to us,” said Washington head men’s coach Michael Callahan, reached while retuning from Shawnigan Lake, British Colombia, where his young Huskies crew “learned a lot” racing the Canadian National Team and University of British Columbia crews in February.

The men’s heavyweight varsity racing at the Sunshine State Invitational is scheduled for Saturday morning, with the foul-weather backup schedule Friday night to ensure the athletes can travel home in time for Monday classes.

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