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SUNDAY RESULTS:
Good news, Cal crew did claim one national championship - congratulations to Cal men’s 2V8+ boat for winning their grand final.
What a perfomance!!! The Bears CRUSH the field to win the Kennedy Cup - varsity second grand final champs!!! #GoBears #CalMRowing pic.twitter.com/gRqQ0iUu5M
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 2, 2019
Congratulations to this crew.
Time for the 2V8 grand final. Bears competing against Harvard, Yale, Washington, Princeton and Brown #GoBears #CalMRowing pic.twitter.com/h5rGy1u0hE
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 2, 2019
Sadly for the men, for the main race that matters, Cal V8+ fell to a 4th place finish behind Yale (repeat champions now under former Cal head coach Steve Gladstone), Washington, and Harvard.
Final results of the varsity eight grand final #CalMRowing https://t.co/OrYUxIhXvl
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 2, 2019
In the other Men’s races from the IRA Championships, Cal took 5th in 3V8 and 2nd in V4.
Final results from the 3V8 grand final https://t.co/vFncFBs2e5
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 2, 2019
Final results of the V4 grand final:
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 2, 2019
1. Washington 6:19.868
2. Cal 6:20.963
3. Princeton 6:25.467
4. MIT 6:29.090
5. Stetson 6:29.445
6. Georgetown 6:36.008
On the women’s side, Cal’s chance to repeat as team champions have already been dashed by not qualifying all three boats for the Grand Final. However, the Bears still have plenty to race for, especially a shot at a rare perfect season for the Cal V8+ boat. Unfortunately, that boat ended up finishing 5th in an extremely close race.
Cal takes fifth place in the varsity eight Grand Final. This was one of the closest grand finals in recent memory.
— Cal Women's Rowing (@CalWRowing) June 2, 2019
1. Washington: 06:07.284
2. Texas: 06:07.971
3. Michigan: 06:08.659
4. Stanford: 06:09.344
5. California: 06:10.515
6. Ohio State: 06:11.042
Relegated to the petite final on Saturday, Cal 2V8+ did win 7th place.
Cal gets the victory in the second varsity petite final!!
— Cal Women's Rowing (@CalWRowing) June 2, 2019
1. California: 06:18.978
2. Princeton: 06:19.838
3. Brown: 06:21.178
4. Yale: 06:23.733
5. Indiana: 06:27.258
6. Wisconsin: 06:35.330 pic.twitter.com/9fzti6GTrJ
Lastly, Cal V4+ boat took 6th place.
Varsity four finishes in sixth place in the grand final. And that is a wrap on the season for the Golden Bears!
— Cal Women's Rowing (@CalWRowing) June 2, 2019
1. Washington: 06:52.451
2. Stanford: 06:55.642
3. Texas: 06:56.987
4. Michigan: 06:57.915
5. Ohio State: 06:59.256
6. California: 07:00.072 pic.twitter.com/ZlBXzylHO1
Washington swept all three races for the NCAA team championship.
In retrospect, I may have jinxed (if you believed in such as thing) by writing about how great today (June 2nd, 2019) may be for Cal Athletics with potential of winning up to 3 team national championships. We already know that Rugby 7s won’t have a shot due to the surprising Saturday results. It turns out that Cal Women’s Rowing may also have blown their shot due to the Saturday results of the 2nd Varsity 8 boat.
On the topic of negative/sad news, let’s not even pay that much attention to how Cal Athletics had self audited their own claims of team national championships in history and dropped their total claims from 99 down to 97 (breaking that down is a different article) since about two months ago.
Nonetheless, there are still plenty of individual boat national titles at stakes today. Who knows, maybe the Cal men’s crew can somehow shock and win their 18th national title in program history.
Cal Women’s Rowing at NCAA Championships
This is the schedule for the Cal women today. First, the Varsity 8 boat will be going for a perfect season by racing for the V8+ trophy. Golden Bears are the defending V8+ champs from last year and it will be quite special if the Bears can win back-to-back championships for the biggest race of NCAA women’s rowing, particularly with that boat having gone undefeated all year long.
Here is the most recent schedule for Cal at the 2019 NCAA Championship. Be great Bears!
— Cal Women's Rowing (@CalWRowing) June 2, 2019
6:10 a.m. PT/ 9:10 a.m. ET - I Eights Grand Final
6:20 a.m. PT/ 9:20 a.m. ET – II Eights Petite Final
6:50 a.m. PT/ 9:50 a.m. ET – Fours Grand Final
: https://t.co/lcijZQuKJJ
Unlike the IRA Championships, the grand prize is given to the summation of the three race results rather than the V8+ race result. Cal’s chance to repeat as NCAA team champs or win their 5th NCAA team title in program history took a serious shot on Saturday when the 2V8+ boat got edged for the 3rd and final spot to Sunday’s Grand Final by Texas (led by former Cal women’s rowing head coach Dave O’Neil). The 2V8+ will only be racing for 7th place today.
Cal V4+ boat, which I had more doubts about making the Grand Final given that they were the 9th overall seed coming into the NCAA championships, did grab a spot in the Grand Final of that race.
Washington, being the overwhelming favorites in 2V8+ and V4+ races, will probably win the team championship now, barring some disastrous finish in the V8+ for them (I’m not even sure if DQ is possible in crew).
You can find the free NCAA video stream of the Sunday action from Indianapolis, IN here.
Cal Men’s Rowing at IRA Championships
Things are simpler in Men’s Rowing with the V8+ boat result being the main decider although one of the trophy given out on Sunday will be for the team point total winner.
The morning was good to the Bears, who advanced all four of their boats to Sunday's grand finals! https://t.co/q8ac0XfQhL #CalMRowing #GoBears
— California Rowing (@CalMRowing) June 1, 2019
Cal managed to advance all 4 boats (V8+, 2V8+, 3V8+, V4+) to the respective Grand Finals on Sunday.
For the big prize, Cal’s V8+ boat finished 2nd to Yale (last year’s champ) in the semifinal. Golden Bears have not been able to beat either the Yale Bulldogs nor the Washington Huskies in races yet this season, but they will get another shot.
The 6 teams racing for the 2019 IRA Championships are Yale, Washington, Cal, Harvard, Princeton, and Northeastern.
The main V8+ Grand Final is scheduled for 11:12 AM PT.
You can watch all of the Sunday action from Lake Natoma (just outside Sacramento) in the embedded YouTube video below:
On a random note, if you have free time, you can watch Cal men’s rowing head coach Scott Frandsen in an episode of the Canadian Wipeout Athlete’s edition below. The Cal alum and Canadian Olympic Silver Medalist does do pretty well.
ROW ON YOU BEARS!