WEST WINDSOR, N.J. – Tested the whole 2000m by the 2-time defending national champion Williams, the Wesleyan men's crew team varsity 8 showed true resolve and fight, gutting out a D3 IRA Championship record time to land first place and the team's first-ever National Championship.
Heading into the day having not lost a race all spring, the Cardinals had to fight off a thrilling final 500m as the Ephs gave Wesleyan all they had coming down to the finish line. Wesleyan got off to a great start, trailing Trinity by just 0.18 seconds after the initial 500m before taking a lead of nearly a full second at the midway point of the race.
The Cardinals continued to surge ahead, putting in a split of 1:26.924 to lead by more than a second heading into the final 500m. Despite holding a 3-seat lead at the 1500m mark, Wesleyan saw Williams make a late surge and close the gap to nearly even with 100m to go. But in the end, it was Wesleyan who showed true grit, posting a 1:25 minute split of their own to cross the line in 5:41.53, which ended up 0.207 seconds faster than the Ephs' time of 5:41.737. Wesleyan's time of 5:41.53 is a new D3 IRA Championship record.
The thrilling victory for the V8 secures the Cardinals a perfect season and first-ever National Championship for a team that was the national runner-up at IRA's last season and didn't even qualify for IRA's in the inaugural D3 Championship in 2022. Wesleyan's top boat achieved a feat never-before-seen in program history, as the Cardinals placed first in all seven races this spring, setting a new standard for a team first established in 1967. The 2024 men's crew team also becomes just the third national championship winning team in school history, joining men's lacrosse (2018) and women's tennis (2019).
Also in competition today was the Wesleyan 2
nd varsity 8 boat which started strong, holding steady in third place at the 500m mark and was in fourth place at both the 1000m and 1500m marks, until ultimately the Cardinals finished in fifth place on Saturday with a time of 6:00.32.
Incredibly, the Cardinals' V8 perfect season stands a great chance of repeating as just one member of the boat (
Emmett Nunes '23, G'24) is in his final season of competition.
Competing for the Cardinals on the day was:
Varsity 8 –
Asher Israel '26 (coxswain),
Pierce Buckner-Wolfson '26,
Nelson Bellows '26,
Emmett Nunes '23,
Gus Shuman '27,
Eli Smirin '26,
Paul Kiyonaga '25,
Hugo Harington '25, and
Brett Beaman '26
2
nd Varsity 8 –
Ben Fischer '27 (coxswain),
Cory Reavy '26,
Nate Newcomer '25,
Freddie Bell '25,
Kiran Kling '24,
Eli Kooistra '25,
Max Ewing '24,
Josh Silbert '26, and
Cabot Adams '27
