Florida Tech Men’s Varsity 8 Boat Finishes 19th in Nation at IRA National Championships

earned spot among the top-20 teams in the nation

GOLD RIVER, CALIFORNIA – Florida Tech wrapped up the IRA National Championships and the 2018-19 season with strong finishes on Sunday at Lake Natoma with the Varsity 8 earning a spot among the top-20 teams in the nation.

A season of practices and racing culminated into Sunday’s finals at Lake Natoma. The Second Varsity 8 got the action started for the Crimson & Gray in the Fourth Level Final against a number of traditional powers.

The Panthers finished fourth overall in the 2V final with a time of 6:09.458, while UC-San Diego (6:04.730), Drexel (6:07.353) and George Washington (6:08.496) made up the top-3 in the race.

The Varsity 8 boat was then up for its shot at the 4th Level Final against strong programs in Oregon State, Drexel, Santa Clara, Hobart and UCSD.

Tech controlled the race throughout and cruised across the finish line in 5:51.588 to claim 19th among all Division I and II programs at the IRA.

The V8 finished ahead of OSU (5:55.091), Drexel (5:56.793) and third-place Santa Clara (6:00.211) in the final, while Hobart (6:00.386) and UCSD (6:05.245) ended fifth and sixth, respectively.

Men’s Varsity 8+
Coxswain / Jaiden Oropallo
Stroke / Nikola Selakovic
7 / Dziugas Nienius
6 / Julius Lesauskas
5 / Matas Lukoseuicius
4 / Zilvinas Visockas
3 / Jackson Moore
2 / Jaime Rus Alba
Bow / Marcus Farley

Men’s 2nd Varsity 8+
Coxswain / Victoria Johnson
Stroke / Jacob Huffman
7 / Ljubo Gavric
6 / Christian Dossett
5 / Mohamed Ben Sidhom
4 / Billy Dietrich
3 / Gabriel Chamberlin
2 / Will Stanhope
Bow / Gennaro Zappariello

With the 2018-19 rowing season now at a close, the Florida Tech men’s crew will now look forward to the 2019-20 campaign and another successful year on the water.

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