It took one extra race to get it done, but the Princeton women’s lightweight crew will compete Saturday for the national champion. The Tigers won the afternoon repechage to advance to the 11 a.m. PST IRA national championship grand final and will join the top-ranked men’s lightweights in the hunt for a national title, while the men’s heavyweight varsity four will also row for gold.

The Princeton women’s lightweights had two opportunities to reach the IRA national championship race on Friday. The first came in the second of two semifinal heats, and it came against a strong field. Stanford, Bucknell and MIT battled Princeton in the heat, with the top two finishers advancing directly to the final. Stanford led throughout the race, but Princeton held a slight edge over Bucknell through 1500 meters.

The Bison, which won the 2007 IRA national title, had a strong final charge in the final 500 and topped Princeton by .18 of a second to place second in the heat. Stanford won in 7:01.10, while Bucknell placed second in 7:02.97. Princeton, which finished third in 7:03.15, turned its focus immediately towards the afternoon repechage.

Princeton needed a top-two finish in the repechage to reach the grand final against a field that included Georgetown, MIT and Tulsa. Both Princeton and Georgetown made sure there would be no drama in the qualification process; both held leads of at least 10 seconds midway through the race and easily punched their tickets to the final. Princeton won the heat in 7:29.90, while Georgetown finished second in 7:38.90. MIT ended third in 7:57.80.

Princeton will take part in arguably the deepest IRA final in women’s lightweight crew history Saturday. Top-ranked and defending champion Wisconsin will go in as the favorite after winning the opening semifinal by more than five seconds, but the remaining crews (Harvard, Georgetown, Princeton, Stanford and Bucknell) have been consistently ranked among the top of the nation.

The women’s lightweights race for the title at 11 a.m. PST, while the men’s lightweights will try to cap their perfect season at 11:30 a.m. in the IRA grand final. Since only seven teams qualified (Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Georgetown, Navy and Columbia), there were no semifinal heats. Instead, one race of 2,000 meters will determine the national champion. Princeton comes in off a perfect season and its first EARC championship since 2003.

The men’s heavyweights took four boats to IRAs, and one will row for gold Saturday. The varsity four, which won its opening heat Thursday, will compete at 9:24 a.m. for gold. The freshman eight needed a win in its repechage to reach the grand final and was locked in a battle with Cornell throughout Friday’s race. In the end, Cornell advanced in 6:00.62, while Princeton moved to the petite final in a time of 6:02.22. The Tiger open four will also move to the petite final after placing second to California in its repechage; the Golden Bears won in 6:46.67, while Princeton finished second in 6:50.60.

The varsity eight will complete the Princeton racing season at 11:45 Saturday morning when it competes in the third-level final. After missing out on the Thursday repechage, the Tigers won the D semifinal in 6:09.58 to advance to the C final.