|
Reserve
your VIP Hospitality Tent next to the finish line today!!!
Sacramento
and Hotel information
107th Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA)
Championships to be held in Sacramento
Sacramento Sports Commission and Sacramento State Aquatic
Center to Co-Host
Championships
CAPE COD, Mass. - Eastern College Athletic Conference
(ECAC) Commissioner Rudy Keeling in
conjunction with the Intercollegiate Rowing Association
(IRA) Board of Stewards announced today that
the 107th IRA Championships will be held June 4-6, 2009
on Lake Natoma, in Gold River, Calif. The
championships will be hosted by the Sacramento Sports
Commission and the Sacramento State Aquatic
Center, and will be administered by the Aquatic Center
Staff and the ECAC. The University of Wisconsin
will look to defend its 2008 crowns in the heavyweight
men’s eight and lightweight women’s eight,
while
Cornell will try to repeat as champions in the lightweight
men’s eight. The University of Washington is the
defending champion in the Jim Ten Eyck team points championship.
Commissioner Keeling, upon making the official announcement,
said he was delighted with the move of
the championships to Sacramento in 2009. “We have
been working for a year with the Sacramento Sports
Commission and the Aquatic Center, and I am pleased
that we can showcase the best of American
intercollegiate rowing on the West Coast. We hope this
is only the first of many visits to a part of the
country that has a longstanding and deep-seated tradition
in the sport of rowing.”
John McCasey, Executive Director of the Sacramento Sports
Commission was equally enthusiastic about
the prospect of bringing the IRA to Lake Natoma. “Sacramento
has a history of hosting world class events,
and we are honored to be the first community in this
part of the U.S. to stage an event of this stature.
We
intend to put on an outstanding event and look forward
to working with the Aquatic Center and the ECAC
over the next ten months.”
Brian Dulgar, Sacramento State Aquatic Center Director,
agreed with McCasey’s assessment. “The Aquatic
Center has a long history of hosting collegiate rowing
championships at the highest level, including the
WIRA, Pac-10 and NCAA Women’s National Championships
multiple times. We are looking forward to
setting a new standard for IRA Championships, and believe
that the Sports Commission and ECAC will
ensure that we all put forth our best efforts in 2009.”
The nation’s oldest collegiate rowing championship,
the IRA was first held in 1895 on the Hudson River in
Poughkeepsie, New York. Poughkeepsie was home to the
regatta for all but two years through 1951. Most
recently Syracuse (1952-1992, and 1994), and Camden,
N.J. (1993 and 1995-2008) have served as regatta
sites. The 2009 championships will be the first ever
held on the West Coast.
About the ECAC®
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only
multi-divisional conference in the country with 321
Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities.
The ECAC stretches from Maine to North Carolina and
westerly to Illinois. Established in 1938, the ECAC,
a non-profit service organization, sponsors more than
100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports and
assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports. The
ECAC also administers eight affiliate sports organizations
and six playing leagues, and through the public
relations arm of the conference, more than 2,500 student-athletes
in 23 sports are recognized annually.
Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary conference for
select members in the sports of men's and women's
ice hockey and men's lacrosse.
About the Sacramento Sports Commission
The Sacramento Sports Commission is a joint city-county
advisory board created in the 1980s to attract and
develop major professional and amateur sporting events
in the capital region. In 1998, the Sports
Commission formed a non-profit organization –
the Sacramento Region Sports Education Foundation –
to
administer SSC events. Since its inception in 1988,
the Sports Commission has been responsible for
bringing a number of high profile events to Sacramento,
including the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2007 NCAA
Men’s Basketball Tournament, the 2003, 2005, 2006,
and 2007 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field
Championships, the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball
Championships, the 1995 U.S. Outdoor
Track and Field Championships, the 1999 John Hancock
U.S. Gymnastics Championships, the 2000 and
2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Track and Field and
the 2001 National Junior Olympic Track and Field
Championships.
About the Sacramento State Aquatic Center
Located on the shores of beautiful Lake Natoma, the
Sacramento State Aquatic Center has been the venue
for many of the Western United States most notable rowing
championships, as well as the inaugural NCAA
Women’s Division I, II, and III National Championships
in 1997. The Aquatic Center is a cooperative
operation of the Associated Students Inc. of California
State University, Sacramento, the University Union
of Sac State, California Department of Boating and Waterways,
and the California Department of Parks and
Recreation. The center was established in 1981 as a
boating instructional safety center and has provided
instruction to thousands of students with its diverse
curriculum, including: rowing, sailing, windsurfing,
kayaking, water skiing, wake boarding, powerboat instruction,
and special events. The center offers
university kinesiology classes, leisure classes for
the general public, competitive teams, and a series
of
progressive summer camps and youth programs. The center
was established to augment the academic
curriculum at Sacramento State, and is open to students,
faculty, staff, and alumni as well as the general
public.
|
