Sunday's Pac 10 Championships saw a host of familiar uni's wearing gold, with Washington sweeping the men's events and California winning three of the four women's events to take the team title back to Berkeley.
The race of the day came in the men's varsity eight, as California took the lead with a fast start and over stroked the top ranked Huskies through the middle thousand to cling to a four seat advantage at the 1500. At this seemingly late juncture, Washington slowly started to cut into the deficit before unleashing a crushing sprint in the final 250 to win by half a length. Stanford finished in third, half a length of open water down from Cal.
Asked if he was ever concerned about the outcome, Washington head coach Michael Callahan said "I was never really worried; it actually kind of played out how I thought. It almost sort of felt like a self foreseeing prophecy; I knew it was going to be tough and really close. After the dual we knew that California had a lot of talent evenly spread between two boats. Steve's a really great coach, and he's going to put it together, so there was no doubt in our minds that this was going to be a tough one. We have some veteran guys that have had close ones before. Not all of them are your best race, but we got it done."
The weather in Sacramento played a big role in the day's racing; Saturday saw a record high temperature of 103 degrees and Sunday was almost as sizzling. "The hardest part for us is that it's been 40 degrees in Seattle and snowing there for the last couple weeks off and on," Callahan said. "So it's 50 to 60 degrees hotter here than we're used to. The first 500 was really hard for everyone physically; hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll get some heat in Seattle and acclimate."
The sweep for the Huskies was the first sweep in 11 years and comes in Callahan's first season as Head Coach. He said, "I was definitely really proud of it. Going into the last race I knew we could do it. I knew it had been a long time, since '97, and it definitely made that last race more exciting with what was on the line. The boathouse is really good top to bottom, there's been a lot of commitment by all the guys individually top to bottom and I think it shows that every guy was committed to the finish line and to each other."
In the women's varsity eight event, Stanford led top ranked Cal from the start, with USC and Washington State a deck behind at the 750. The Bears took a major move around the 1250 to overtake Stanford, and had built a half length lead going through the 1500. USC started to fall off the pace in the third 500 and WSU took control of third behind Stanford. Cal continued to push out from Stanford in the final quarter of the race to win going away by four seconds, as WSU followed in bronze positions two seconds later.
Cal looked strong and comfortable going through the line, but it certainly wasn't clear sailing. After the race, Cal head Coach Dave O'Neill a had these thoughts: "I wouldn't say the varsity had a comfortable race, but I think that they do have another gear in them. They came off the water and were happy. There was a little bit of an issue at the start with the wind and they got taken in to the buoys. The 6-seat caught a little bit of a crab, but we were laughing about it, it's no big deal. I'd say the crew had their A game today, but we'll have to go faster in two weeks."
The win by Cal sets up a showdown in two weeks with the Brown Varsity 8 who won the EAWRC Sprints on Sunday, as well as a resurgent Virginia that won the South Central Sprints. On finding the speed for NCAA's, O'Neill commented, "We want to be the most improved team over the course of the spring. I think the plan is working pretty well, but we'll shake things up a bit. Everyone knows not to get comfortable. We'll go out and race in fours this week, mix the line-ups up a bit. Some of the practices lately have had some really great racing.'
Additional medalists include:
Women's 2V8:
California
Oregon State
Stanford
Men's 2V8:
Washington
California
Oregon State
Women's V4:
Washington
California
USC
Men's V4:
Washington
California
Stanford
Women's Novice 8:
California
Washington
Washington State
Men's Freshmen 8:
Washington
California
Stanford
For complete results, see www.row2k.com/results/
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