Golden Medals: Big Row sweep for Cal Rowing; Postseason plans for Men’s and Women’s Golf and Men’s Tennis

With Cal Rugby wrapping up the 15s season today at the national championship and Cal Women’s Water Polo being the 3rd seed in the NCAA National Championship tournament next week, let’s check on the rest of active Olympics sports teams.

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Cal Men’s and Women’s Crew dominates Big Row yet again

From Redwood shores last weekend, No.2 Cal Men’s Rowing and No.1 Cal Women’s Rowing swept rival Stanford in all races in expected fashion.

On the men’s side, the one race that mattered (for the national championship eventually) is the Varsity 8. This one goes to the Bears in pretty dominant fashion.

Bears also won the 2V8+ and 3V8+ races.

On the women’s side, the top ranked Cal Bears also lived up to the top ranking. Bears won all three races that will matter for the NCAA championship in June.

They also won the 3V8 race.

On the year thus far, the Cal Mens V8 boat has won every race including over the defending champs Yale, other than against the Washington Huskies - current No.1. For the women, Cal defeated the defending champs in Washington to take the No.1 ranking.

For both teams, the Pac-12 Championship on May 13th is next. The Women will then travel to Sarasota, Florida for the NCAA Championship on May 25th-27th. The men will race for the IRA National Championship from Mercer Lake in New Jersey on June 1st-3rd.

Former coxswain for both the men and the women, Valerie McClain, will be a new inductee into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame this fall.

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Cal Men’s Golf - Walter Chun named Coach of the Year, Collin Morikawa is a Ben Hogan Award finalist, Bears to play in the Raleigh Regional

In his 2nd year after taking over the program from Steve Desimone, Cal alum and Cal Men’s Golf head coach Walter Chun has been named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year (after all of his depth returned from an academic redshirt year last year).

I have been harping all year long about how this Cal team has maybe a two year window to win the program’s 2nd NCAA title. The path to that will begin from Raleigh, North Carolina for the Bears on May 14th-16th. The 2nd seed in the Regional, Bears will play in the Lonnie Poole Golf Course and are seeking a top 5 team finish to advance to the NCAA championships.

Cal junior Collin Morikawa was just named one of the three finalist to the prestigious Ben Hogan Award.

The lone Cal star to not take the redshirt year last year, Morikawa is coming off one of the best individual season in Cal history in 2016-17 to post another very solid year. It will be quite exciting to see what Morikawa and his teammate can do this postseason.

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Cal Women’s Golf in the San Francisco Regional early next week

Playing early next week (May 7th to 9th) is Cal Women’s Golf in the Pac-12 heavy Regional. Bears are the 11th seed in the regional. 6 teams and the top 3 individual (not on the top 6 teams) from each Regional will advance to the NCAA championship in Oklahoma later this month.

Here is the field for the San Francisco Regional.

Bears are quite familiar with this course and may be able to surprise people. Last year, Cal took 5th in the regional to advance as a team to the NCAA championship.

Junior Jiyoon Jang earned 1st team all-conference honor but had missed some time this spring.

Hopefully, the Bears and their international lineup (including mainstays Norwegian senior Marthe Wold, Spanish sophomore Maria Herraez, American junior Marianne Li, in addition to Jang and one more) will be healthy next week.

HOLE ON YOU BEARS!

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Cal Men’s Tennis to play first two round in Austin, Texas

No.34 Cal Men’s Tennis will be back in the postseason. Despite having the top ranked recruiting class in the country, it has been an uneven season for the young Cal Men’s Tennis squad. Nonetheless, the Bears will be getting some postseason experience when they play the first (and second) round from Austin Texas.

Bears will face NC State in the first round and likely the 11th overall seed Texas in the 2nd round. The lone Cal play ranked is senior Billy Griffith who is 55th in the country as the Cal No.1. Griffith and fellow senior JT Nishimura are also ranked 33rd in doubles. The rest of the Cal squad are mostly freshmen (although one sophomore do sometimes find his way in the roster).

In the Pac-12 quarterfinal, this was the Cal lineup:

No.1 Billy Griffith

No.2 JT Nishimura

No.3 Ben Draper

No.4 Paul Barreto

No.5 Jacob Brumm

No.6 Bjorn Hoffmann

Draper, Barreto, and Brumm are freshmen. Hoffmann is a sophomore. Freshman Jack Molloy also has gotten experience this spring.

The NCAA first round will start next Friday (May 11th) for the Bears against the Wolfpack of NC State.

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No postseason for the young Cal Women’s Tennis team

The season is over for the young Cal Women’s Tennis team that has played a lineup of two juniors (Hauger and Smith) with four freshmen for the bulk of the season.

Bears end their season 11-9 in a relatively down year for the conference, which also cost the Bears a postseason berth for a bad RPI. With the youth of Julia Rosenqvist and Anna Bright at the top of the lineup as freshwomen, the postseason drought should not be long for the Golden Bears.

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Cal Track and Field sets more PR’s at the Brutus Hamilton meet

Cal Track and Field wraps their home schedule with the Brutus Hamilton Challenge from possibly one of the last times from Edwards Stadium last weekend.

Bears won 15 events and honored their seniors. Bears will travel to Sacramento State for a meet this Saturday ahead of the Pac-12 Championship from Stanford next weekend.

Two Cal Track and Field alum will be inducted into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame this fall. Congratulations to two Calympians in Alysia Johnson Montano and Ramon Jimenz-Gaona!

GO BEARS!