Cal Men's Varsity Eight Advances to Semifinals at Rowing Nationals

Golden Bears win their heat comfortably, but not with the fastest time of the day in New Jersey

Cal's No. 1-ranked men's varsity eight advanced to the semifinals of the IRA national rowing championships by winning its heat comfortably on Friday at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. But it wasn't all good news as Cal's winning time was the slowest of the winning times in the four heats.

The Golden Bears won their heat by nearly four seconds, finishing in a time of 5:43.093. That was 3.76 seconds faster than second-place Syracuse. As the top to finishers in their six-boat heat, Cal and Syracuse advance to Saturday's semifinals.

The dominant win could have allowed Cal to pace itself and not push for a faster time, as the other three heat winners all had faster times.

No. 2-ranked Yale, which figures to be Cal's chief competition for a national championship, raced in the second heat and the Bulldogs turned in the fastest time of the day, 3:36.148, and that was a little more than two seconds better than second-place Harvard.

Brown won the third heat in a time of 5:37.654, more than four seconds ahead of second-place Princeton, and Washington finished first in the fourth varsity eight heat, in a time of 5:37.896, which was 3.67 seconds ahead of second-place Dartmouth.

Here is a video of all heats, with Cal's varsity eight heat about 28 minutes into the video:

So Cal, Syracuse, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Washington and Dartmouth advanced to the semifinals of the varsity eights.

The other semifinalists were determined later Friday in the repechage heats.

Cal's second varsity eight also advanced to the semifinals by winning its heat by 2.7 seconds, and Cal's varsity four advanced to its semifinal with a qualifying time-trial clocking of 6:15.124. However, Cal's varsity four later finished fourth in its semifinal heat, with only the top three advancing to the A finals.  Cal will race in the petite finals instead.

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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