The California men's rowing team's 2025 season gets started this weekend with crews competing at the California Challenge in Newport Beach on Saturday and the Redwood Shores Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
 
The fourth varsity eight and the freshmen eight will head to the California Challenge to face crews from Orange Coast College, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, while the first through sixth varsity eights will stay home to race at Redwood Shores and take on boats from Drexel, Oregon State, Santa Clara and UC San Diego.
 
The California Challenge will be streamed HERE and the results for the Redwood Shores Invitational will be HERE. There will not be a live stream for the Redwood Shores Invitational.
 
This weekend's competitions mark the first chance head coach Scott Frandsen will get to see his oarsmen compete against boats other than his own, and gauge where the Golden Bears are at mentally and physically.
 
"As we start to test some lineups in these early sets of racing, the guys are definitely excited to turn that focus from internal competition to external competition," Frandsen said.
 
The team returns numerous rowers from last year's squad that finished third at the IRA national championships, highlighted by few key faces that might just make the difference in getting the Bears back to the top. Returning to the water this year will be Frederik Breuer, Angus Dawson, Gennaro di Mauro and Tim Roth, all of whom did not compete for Cal last year as they trained for and eventually competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics. All four were members of Cal's varsity eight that won back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023.
 
"Their presence is definitely felt," Frandsen said. "I think more in the daily standard of how we do things. Obviously, they bring some experience and some confidence that is felt throughout the group. Those four guys specifically are starting to hit their stride and feel refreshed and feel like we're all charging into the spring season in a good spot."
 
Frandsen sees more than just those four Bears making an impact this season, noting that many of the younger rowers – including Matthew Waddell, Maximilian Pfautsch, Rory Menzies and Tomba Morreau, all of whom were part of Cal's second varsity eight last season – are pushing the team's depth from both directions.
 
While the roster's talent is evident, the top boat lineups are far from set as Cal eyes another run at an IRA national championship title.
 
"No seats are set," Frandsen said. "I'm looking for that persistent energy, attitude and ability to make technical changes, ability to just consistently bring intensity and hard rowing to everything that we do. If you can do all those things, you will work your way up through any group. We have a lot of guys doing that, so our depth down through four, five, six boats is strong."

SCHEDULES

Redwood Shores Invitational

Saturday AM
9:10 AM - Cal V8+ vs Drexel V8+
9:30 AM - Cal 3V8+ vs UCSD V8+
9:50 AM - Cal 2V8+ vs Drexel 2V8+
10:20 AM - Cal 4V8+ vs UCSD 3V8+

Saturday PM
2:20 PM - Cal V8+ vs Oregon State V8+
2:50 PM - Cal 4V8+ vs USD V8+
3:00 PM - Cal 2V8+ vs. Oregon State 2V8+
3:30 PM - Cal 3V8+ vs. Oregon State 3V8+

California Challenge

Saturday
8:05 AM - Cal 4V8+ vs UCLA V8+
8:10 AM - Cal Freshman 8+ vs Orange Coast College V8+
9:30 AM - Cal 4V8+ vs UC Irvine V8+
9:35 AM - Cal Freshman 8+ vs UCSB V8+

 
STAY POSTED
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