Sunday brought a whole day’s worth of action for Stanford rowing as both the 10th-ranked men and eighth-ranked women competed in the Pac-12 conference championships. While both varsity eight boats placed third, the women came out of the competition with the bronze and the men with fourth place.

On the men’s side, the Cardinal repeated their performance from last year’s championships by placing third in the men’s varsity eight. The tournament featured four ranked teams, No. 1 Washington, No. 2 Cal, No. 10 Stanford and No. 19 Oregon State, who placed in accordance with their rankings in the final.

Stanford finished the varsity eight final 11 seconds behind second-place Cal, who tested the Huskies early in the meet when it took a lead for the first 500 meters. Washington ultimately hit its stride and regained the lead en route to a four-second victory over UC Berkeley.

The Cardinal’s second and third varsity eights both finished fourth in their respective finals earlier during the day, bringing Stanford to a fourth-place finish overall in the competition.

Stanford women also placed third in a Husky-dominated varsity eight final where Washington led the entirety of the race. The Cardinal were unable to avenge last year’s 0.8-second loss to the Golden Bears, placing third by a margin of four seconds behind second-place Cal and missing the championship by eight seconds.

The women varsity fours also competed on Sunday, coming in fourth, two seconds behind USC. Washington also took the championship in the varsity four races.

The Huskies dominated pretty much all of Sunday’s action and became the first program in a 20-year conference history to win both the men’s and women’s title in the same year. Washington swept all five races of the day, only losing in the freshman eight to Cal, completing the championship regatta with its victory in the men’s varsity eight.

 

Contact Lorenzo Rosas at enzor9 ‘at’ stanford.edu