Dad Vail Regatta receives four automatic qualifiers for the IRA national championships in 2026
Previously, only the top two boats from the Dad Vail had earned automatic qualification for the IRA event. Now, as the competition gets tougher, the national outfit has taken notice.
The Dad Vail Regatta, the nation’s largest collegiate regatta, will have two more national championship spots available in the 2026 event.
The Intercollegiate Rowing Association announced Friday that it will extend automatic qualifications for the IRA national championships to the top four finishers in the men’s heavyweight varsity eight at the 2026 Dad Vail. Before the change, only the top two boats from the Dad Vail earned automatic qualification for the national championships.
The Dad Vail, which had 61 teams compete in 2025, will return to Cooper River in Pennsauken for the fourth year on May 8-9, 2026. Cooper River Park also was the location for the 2025 IRA national championships. The 2026 IRA championships are May 29-31 in Sacramento, Calif.
Kirsten Morasco, president of the Dad Vail organizing committee, says the increase in designated automatic bids from the IRA is a reflection of the quality of the regatta’s entrants in recent years.
“We are [being] recognized for the quality of the competition,” Morasco said. “The IRA giving us two more bids, it tells us that they see the quality of the competition that we have and that we expect this coming year.”
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The Dad Vail is one of three collegiate regattas in which boats can earn automatic bids to the national championships in 2026. The top seven boats from the Eastern Sprints will qualify, as will the top five boats from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship. The four Dad Vail boats and eight at-large bid recipients will complete the 24-boat field for the heavyweight varsity eight at the IRA national championships.
Philadelphia-area schools have excelled at the Dad Vail over the last decade. Drexel, the event’s overall team winner in 2025, has won 10 of the last 12 combined men’s and women’s points titles and five men’s heavyweight varsity eight grand finals since 2013.
Temple claimed overall team titles in 2019 and 2023. The Owls won their 23rd men’s varsity eight gold in 2025, finishing the 2,000-meter sprint in 5 minutes, 37.711 seconds.
“Being able to win [the Dad Vail] is pretty special,” Temple coach Brendan Cunningham said. “We go to the football game or the tailgates, and people know you won the Dad Vail. We go to some of these alumni functions, and people might not know the whole sport, the IRA, or some of these other races, [but] they know what the Dad Vail is.”
La Salle finished second in the 2025 men’s varsity eight final, earning the other available IRA qualifying spot after finishing 0.362 seconds behind Temple. Drexel’s boat finished third, while St. Joseph’s finished fourth. If four automatic qualifying spots had been available in 2025, the Dad Vail results would have sent all four teams to the IRA national championships.
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“Philly has just been getting so much faster,” Drexel coach Paul Savell said. “It has drawn a lot of other schools that want to race [at] our level of competition.”
The Dad Vail’s organizers hope the two extra IRA bids will allow them to assemble an even more competitive field for the 2026 regatta. Morasco says that four automatic bids are the most the regatta has had in its history.
“We already had this great competition, but I think it’s just going to take us up a notch,” Morasco said. “It’s going to draw in these other strong schools, and we’re going to see the competition in this varsity eight race be even more impressive than it was this past year.”
With more opportunities for teams to qualify, the Dad Vail may be able to field some teams that would typically opt for other postseason events and IRA qualifiers, like the Eastern Sprints.
At Temple, Cunningham sees a potential increase in the quality of competitors at the Dad Vail as an opportunity to improve his team and a chance to get more eyes on the sport.
“Having teams that you don’t typically see throughout the year come in for a championship and being able to compete, to test your speed, I think is the goal,” Cunningham said. “I think being able to draw in some programs could be good for the sport and make it more popular, giving it a little bit more exposure.”
Even though the increased number of IRA automatic bids now matches the number of men’s Big 5 rowing programs that compete at the event (Penn competes at the Eastern Sprints; Villanova does not sponsor men’s varsity rowing), those teams aren’t just looking to qualify for the IRA race. They want gold.
“The goal remains the same,” Cunningham said. “Put your bow in front and keep it there and come home with the varsity title.”
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