For the third straight year, neither the Cardinal men nor women could surpass Washington at the Pac-12 Rowing Championships. Both Stanford teams left with top-three finishes, though, after a rainy day of racing at California’s Lake Natoma.
And the Stanford women came close — pushing Washington to the title’s smallest margin of victory since 2010. At the competition’s halfway point, the Cardinal were tied with both Washington and archrival Cal for first place, but Washington strung together three straight race victories to secure the title.
Stanford’s second-place score of 39 points put the women just a half point ahead of rival Cal and a half point behind the winners. The Cardinal had not placed second in the event since 2016.
Some women’s races were closer than others, as the Cardinal edged Cal (07:18.303) for second in the Second Varsity Eight (07:18.873), and came within a second of topping Cal (6:11.901) for first in the Varsity Eight (6:12.824), the only women’s race that Washington did not win.
Make no mistake, though. Sunday was the Washington Huskies’ show. On the men’s side, UW won all five of its races and left with its 39th conference title. The Cardinal men notched 54 points en route to their second-straight third-place finish. They were outperformed by the second-place Cal squad (63), which fell just as far behind the Huskies (72).
But the differences in score do not reflect performance. Cal finished as a close second to Washington in each men’s race except for the novice eight, in which Stanford did not compete. The Cardinal trailed significantly behind both Cal and Washington, never finishing within 20 seconds of either.
Nonetheless, Stanford made its presence felt, and the Cardinal will look to improve in a big way from May 31 to June 2.
The women are headed to Indianapolis, Indiana for the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championship, while the Cardinal men will cap their season in the 2019 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship at the Sacramento State Aquatics Center.
The NCAA Women’s Rowing Selection Show is at 2 p.m. Tuesday and will be broadcast at NCAA.com.
Contact Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.