Cal Women Qualify for Grand Finals in NCAA Rowing

Golden Bears' varsity eight ekes out a third-place finish in its semifinal race, with top three advancing

The Cal varsity eight advanced to Sunday's grand finals of the NCAA women's rowing championships on Saturday in Sarasota, Fla.

The Golden Bears, who are ranked 10th in the country, finished third in their semifinal race and clocked the fourth-fastest time of the two semifinal races. The top three finishers in each semifinal advanced to the grand finals, which will determine the national champion.

Top-ranked Texas won the semifinal race in which Cal participated, and the Longhorns finished in a time of 2:18.495, well ahead of the field. Cal, Brown and Ohio State vied for second place and they all finished within a half-second of each other.  Brown finished second in 6:22.995, with Cal finishing less that five one-hundredths of a second behind at 6:23.039. More importantly, the Golden Bears crossed the finish line less than half a second ahead of Ohio State, which finished in 6:23.483.

That meant Cal qualified for the grand final and Ohio Stat did not.

--Click here for a video replay of Cal's semifinal race. The Bears race starts about 20 minutes into the video--

Stanford, Washington and Princeton qualified for the grand finals in the other semifinal race.

Cal's second varsity eight and varsity four will compete in the Petite Finals.

"Although we didn't qualify all our boats for the A final, the team raced hard today," said head coach Al Aosta. "I'm confident that the four and the second eight have more boat speed and will continue to fight to score as many points for the team as possible. The first eight did a great job qualifying for the A finals. I think they learned a lot about how to finish a race today. We're looking forward to seeing them and the team as a whole take another big step tomorrow."

Saturday's Results

V8+
1. Texas - 6:18.45
2. Brown - 6:22.99
3. California - 6:23.03
4. Ohio State - 6:23.48
5. Penn - 6:33.71
6. SMC - 6:39.06

2V8+
1. Texas - 6:23.87
2. Washington - 6:25.19
3. Princeton - 6:27.95
4. Brown - 6:32.29
5. California - 6:34.38
6. Penn - 6:37.51

V4+
1. Stanford - 7:08.58
2. Princeton - 7:12.44
3. Ohio State - 7:15.76
4. Yale - 720.84
5. California - 7:25.48
6. USC - 7:29.25

Cover photo by Zach Franzen

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

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