GOLD RIVER, Calif. - The Cornell men's lightweight rowing team placed sixth in the IRA Presidents Trophy standings at the 2026 IRA National Championships. The Big Red finished the weekend tied with MIT at 27 points, but earned the tiebreaker thanks to a higher finish in the varsity eight (V8+), placing fourth compared with MIT's sixth-place result.

Cornell also competed in the V4+, opening with a sixth-place finish in the time trial in 6:29.944. The Big Red advanced to the finals after placing second in its semifinal in 6:34.570, just behind Princeton's winning time of 6:33.740. In the final, Cornell finished fifth in 6:45.970, behind Penn, Harvard, Mercyhurst, and Princeton, while crossing the line ahead of fellow Ivy League foe Columbia.

"I am incredibly proud of the way the team competed this season. We started off the season ranked 10th and finished fourth. In our opening race, we were 22 seconds behind Harvard and 18 seconds behind Penn. In the final at IRA, we beat Penn and finished less than five seconds behind Harvard (first place).", Tyler Nase, the Henry E. Bartels '48 Head Coach of Lightweight Rowing mentioned.

"I think this team learned some important lessons this season and they have worked extremely hard. I am very excited for what the future holds.", Nase concluded with.

Cornell Boat Lineups:

Varsity 
Rhea Kaycee
Gabe Xu
Maximilian Purcea
Nathan Bechard
Colin Bailey 
Nicholas Hlinka
Cruz Erdmann
Eliott Swinney
Owen Brown 

4+
Sofia Lago 
Jon Mayer
Nathaniel Santaniello 
Evan Yang
Teddy Holtman