SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- For the second consecutive season, the Columbia University men's lightweight crew finished seventh in the nation at the IRA National Championships on Saturday. The Lions took part in the Grand Final for their only race of the competition and finished in seventh place.

"You have to have your best race on a day like today, and unfortunately we didn't," head lightweight coach Scott Alwin said of the event. "We had been getting stronger throughout practice leading up to the race and it was a little bit disappointing."

After a strong showing at Eastern Sprints, which saw Columbia win the Petite Final, the Lions looked to challenge the best in the nation this week at IRA's. The Lions got off the blocks strong, staying with Cornell and Navy, two boats that had gotten the better of them earlier in the year. At the 500-meter mark, Columbia was less than four-tenths behind the Big Red and less than two seconds behind the Midshipmen.

But Columbia couldn't quite keep up in the ensuing 1500 meters, falling further behind as the race progressed. A headwind was present for the duration of the race, and was a detriment to the Lion boat, which is tailored more toward tailwinds.

"It is an outdoor sport and we have to be prepared to race in any conditions, but the headwind played a role," Alwin noted.

The Lions closed the race in a time of 6:24.9, with Navy finishing ahead of the Blue and White to take sixth. Cornell ended up in fifth place, narrowly missing out on fourth to Georgetown by less than a second.

The fight for second place was also tight, as Yale edged Harvard by 1.6 seconds, and the national championship was won by Princeton, who dominated the field with a wire-to-wire win by nearly five seconds.

National Lightweight Championships at IRA Regatta
Sacramento, Calif.
June 6, 2009
Grand Final Results
1. Princeton, 6:03.23
2. Yale, 6:08.00
3. Harvard, 6:09.60
4. Georgetown, 6:12.93
5. Cornell, 6:13.42
6. Navy, 6:14.80
7. Columbia, 6:24.90