As the academic year draws to a close and seasons wrap up for spring sports, yet another Stanford team is heading east in search of a title.

The No. 3 Stanford lightweight women’s crew team is in Cherry Hill, N.J. today to begin competition in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships.

Stanford will look to duplicate the success it had in its last race, the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships, two and a half weeks ago. The Cardinal steamrolled its competition on Lake Natoma, crushing the only competitor, Loyola Marymount, by 28 seconds in the varsity eight. The win at the PCRCs was Stanford’s fifth in the last six years of the event.

But things will certainly be more difficult at the IRAs.

Not only does the Cardinal face a full field of 12 boats, but among those are some of the toughest teams in the nation. The IRA field is comprised of the top-12 nationally ranked crews.

In the first heat alone, the Cardinal is matched up against No. 11 Lehigh, No. 10 Long Beach State, No. 7 Bucknell, No. 6 Central Florida and No. 2 Princeton.

Of course, if Stanford advances into the final heats, the competition only gets tougher. The other heat includes No. 12 MIT, No. 9 Loyola Marymount, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 5 Radcliffe, No. 4 Georgetown and the regatta favorite, top-ranked Wisconsin.

Stanford can at least take confidence in its experience with much of the field already this season.

In early April, Stanford (then No. 7) defeated Loyola and Central Florida (then No. 5) on its way to face Princeton (then No. 1) in the final. The Tigers were able to defeat the Cardinal, but the Card charged hard at the end of the race and closed the gap. Knowing that they have out-stroked Princeton in the past should be a boost to the Stanford women.

More recently, Stanford had the opportunity to square off with Wisconsin (No. 1 at the time) in Indianapolis. By then, the Cardinal had climbed to its current ranking and fell to the Badgers by just three seconds. Stanford did, however, edge out both Georgetown (then No. 4) and Ohio State in the race.

Last year Stanford finished 12th at the IRAs — a significant drop from a fifth-place finish the year before.

With the success this team found this year, its experience against upcoming competitors, its record and confidence, expect the Cardinal to compete hard for a high finish, if not the title.