REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – No. 9 Stanford fell to No. 1 California on Saturday in its last races of the regular season.
"Cal is the top team in the country, and they showed that today on the water," said the Farwell Family Director of Men's Rowing Ted Sobolewski. "I give a ton of credit to their athletes and coaches for continuing to push the standard in the Pac-12 and collegiate rowing overall."
The varsity eight squad is now 6-1 on the season, going 5:36.00. Cal got out to an early lead in the race, but the Cardinal pushed hard to close the margin to 4.3 seconds at the finish.
"Losing is tough, and while we understand where we are in the trajectory of building our program, we ultimately want to be in the position to win this race," said Sobolewski. "I'm proud of our varsity crew for the work they've put in so far this year, and today is a good reminder that we still have more work to do. With that said, this is a good group, and they've shown they have the ingredients to be a great crew. We look forward to shifting to six boat racing in the championship portion of our season."
Stanford's second varsity lost its second race of the season, going 6:05.20. Its only other loss came against No. 6 Northeastern at the Pac-12 Invitational.
"Without taking anything away from Cal's performance, we are disappointed in the second varsity race today," stated Sobolewski. "We tried a new lineup late in the week and I'm not sure we set the crew up for success today. Our previous racing would indicate that we have more ability in that crew than we showed today. We'll set our sights on a significantly better performance in two weeks at the Pac-12 Championships."
The Cardinal's next race is at the Pac-12 Championships in Lowell, Ore. on May14.
RESULTS
Varsity Eight
- California 5:31.70
- Stanford 5:36.00
Second Varsity
- California 5:41.20
- Stanford 6:05.20
BOATS
Varsity 8+
C: Elysia Smyers
8: Porter Weisberg
7: Caspar Griffin
6: Jacopo Mascitelli
5: Lucas Johnson
4: Peter Chatain
3: Travis Senf
2: Flynn Traeger
1: Henry Stewart
Second Varsity
C: Lauren Williams
8: Nick Woehrle
7: James Pullinger
6: Ben Felter
5: James Fetter
4: Joey O'Brien
3: Jack Clark
2: Scott Buzard
1: Sebastian Marsoner