Cal Men Win Second Straight National Rowing Title

Bears varsity eight boat finishes first with many of the same rowers that won last year's IRA nationals

Cal captured its second straight men’s rowing national championship on Sunday by finishing first in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association varsity eight grand final on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.

The Golden Bears took control from the start and continued to stretch their lead throughout the race, winning by more than one second to capture their 19th national championship overall.

Cal finished in a time of 5:31.72, ahead of surprising second-place finisher Washington, which was timed in 5:32.96. The Huskies played second fiddle to Cal all season, but they came up with one of their best performance of the season to give the West Coast a one-two finish, ahead of the East Coast powers Princeton and Yale.

The fourth-place finish for Yale was a disappointment for Yale coach Steve Gladstone, the former Cal coach who won five national championships while with the Bears. One of the rowers on Cal’s national powerhouse squads was Scott Frandsen, who is now Cal’s head coach and captured his second straight national title.

Cal’s victory was not a surprise. The Golden Bears returned all nine members of last year’s national championship varsity eight, and eight of them were in the boat that won Sunday’s race. The one addition was Gus Rodriguez, a transfer from Brown, who displaced one of last year’s Cal crew members.

Cal’s winning varsity eight crew consisted of Luca Vieira (coxswain), Iwan Hadfield (stroke), Angus Dawson (7), Tim Roth (6), Ollie Maclean (5), Gennaro di Mauro (4), Gus Rodriguez (3), Frederik Breuer (2) and Campbell Crouch (bow).

Rowers, rowing coaches and rowing officials always consider the winner of the varsity eight grand final as the national champion.

However, Cal swept all four events, winning the second varsity eight final and third varsity eight final.  The Golden Bears had captured the varsity four final on Saturday.

Cover photo by Zach Franzen, KLC Fotos

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