GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The Cal men's rowing team won the freshman eight for the third year in a row and the Golden Bears finished second in the overall team standings at the 2018 Pac-12 Rowing Championships Sunday morning at Lake Natoma. Competing in sunny and breezy conditions, the Bears placing in the top two in all five races of the day, finishing second overall to Washington.

"We lost to a really good Washington crew, so hats off to them," said Cal head coach Mike Teti. "I thought all our guys put up a really good fight and I'm very proud of them for that. It was really great to see our freshmen come through with a win and our other boats all raced incredibly hard,"

Washington and Cal entered Sunday's racing ranked first and second, respectively, in the national polls, setting up another great competition for the conference crown.

After Washington won the men's varsity four, Cal responded by claiming victory in the first scoring event of the day with a win in the men's freshman eight. The Bears jumped out to an early lead and held an open water advantage by the 1,000-meter mark. Cal's freshman showed great racing and composure down the stretch as they held off the Huskies' comeback attempt to secure Cal's third consecutive conference crown in the freshman eight.

Washington responded with a victory in the third varsity eight, slowly gaining water on second-place Cal over the middle 1,000 meters of the race. The Bears topped third-place Stanford by several lengths of open water.

The second varsity eight saw another tight race between the Cal and Washington boats, with the Huskies ultimately prevailing to set up a winner-take all showdown in the final event of the day, the men's varsity eight.

The varsity eight race lived up to the expectation in the second meeting this season between the Huskies and Bears. While Washington topped Cal by nearly four seconds earlier in the year at Redwood Shores, Sunday's meeting was tightly contested down to the wire. Dead even at the halfway point, Washington started to pull away heading into the final 500 meters. The Bears continued to battle and closed the margin to just a few seats, but it was not enough to the Huskies at the finish.

"There were three or four times during that race where we were maybe a little vulnerable, but our guys stuck it through and it was definitely an improved result," said Teti. "We're done with exams and have a couple weeks now to get some good and focused work in. We're really excited to get back to it and we know have to keep improving if we want to compete for a national championship."

The Bears will now turn their preparations to the 2018 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta, hosted June 1-3 at Mercer Lake in Princeton, New Jersey. Cal captured both the IRA team National Championship and Varsity Challenge Cup in 2016. Selections and seeding for IRAs will be announced in the coming weeks.

For updates and information throughout the year, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalMRowing), Instagram (@CalMRowing), and Facebook (Facebook.com/CalMRowing).