Navy Claims Fifth Place in IRAC Lightweight Rowing Varsity Four Crew

The Navy Midshipmen are known for their talented lightweight rowing teams. They had multiple crews competing at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.

The four-man crew had their finals on Saturday. The two-man crews and the eight-man crew cheered on their fellow teammates while they waited for their respective finals the following day. 

The members of the four-man crew competed on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. and after 2,000 meters of action the Mids came in fifth place. 

The crew only had one senior which means four members should be returning next season. Lone senior Andy Fichtel of Wellesley, Mass., would be the only one not returning. The team has three sophomores, which is even more promising for the future. 

Junior Devin Ratte and sophomores George Liu, Max Gomez, and Ryan Kennedy teamed up with Fichtel in a spectacular finale. Liu was at bow, Gomez, Fichtel and Kennedy went two, three, four, and Ratte was at cox.

There were six schools that earned a spot in the finals and all started off strong. At the 500-meter mark all crews were within 1.276 seconds of each other. 

By the halfway mark crews started to distance themselves a bit as the separation had grown to 2.89 seconds. At this point, Navy was in sixth, but still within striking distance of the current front runners, the Penn Quakers. 

By the 1,500 meter park the front four had taken a sizable distance between the bottom two. There was a 4.511 second gap between Penn, Georgetown, Mercyhurst, and Harvard (top four) and the bottom two: Navy and Columbia. 

During the final stretch the Mids battled their way to a fifth place finish over Columbia by over two full seconds with a respectable 6:33.33. 

Georgetown claimed the national title an impressive 6:23.9, which just barely beat out second place Mercyhurst. The Lakers had a final time of 6:24.41. Third and fourth were also incredibly tight as Penn took home third place, but just barely. Their crew had a final time of 6:26.42 compared to Harvard's time of 6:26.76.

The Navy Midshipman are bringing back nearly every member of this incredible crew. There is no telling what they could accomplish in the next two years as they continue to grow and build together.