April 9, 2001
This Week: Sat., April 14, Stanford Dual, Redwood Shores, CA, 9 a.m.
Next Race: Sun., April 22, Oregon State Dual, Redwood Shores, CA, 9 a.m.
Stanford Dual: The Cal men's crew will take on the Stanford Cardinal in the 68th meeting for the Schwabacher Cup. Racing on the Redwood Shores Lagoon is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and includes a full slate of men's and women's competition.
Varsity Eight: Coming off back-to-back undefeated national championship seasons, the Cal men's varsity eight is the odds-on favorite to win the title again in 2001 with a blend of 1999's power and 2000's efficiency. Unlike last season, when Cal returned only two oarsmen with varsity IRA gold medals to their credit, this year's squad boasts six Olympians, eight returning varsity IRA champions and seven returning freshman IRA champions. The Bears are expected to race the following varsity lineup:
Cox Michael Vallarelli
Stroke Jeffrey Nalty
7 Mladen Stegic
6 Jake Wetzel
5 Nito Simonsen
4 Filip Filipic
3 Ivan Smiljanic
2 Luke Walton
Bow Scott Frandsen
Schwabacher Cup: The Bears, fresh off a win in the Copley Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic, will be looking for their 11th consecutive Schwabacher Cup victory. Since 1902, Cal leads the series with Stanford, 50-18, and have won 26 of the last 28 meetings. Stanford is un-ranked and finished ninth at the Crew Classic.
Farm Hands: The Stanford men's crew coaching staff is 100% Golden Bear. Cardinal Head Coach Craig Amerkhanian, is the winningest freshman coach in the history of Cal crew,guiding the Bears to two IRA gold and two IRA silver medal performances during his nine year stint as frosh coach. As an oarsman, Amerkhanian raced in the 1979 and '80 Cal varsity eights. The Stanford freshman coach, Jon Allbin, graduated from Cal in 1999. He collected three Pac-10 championships, and three IRA medals including a freshman silver, JV gold and varsity bronze, as a Cal oarsman from 1996-99.
Crew Classic Recap: Cal men's varsity eight won it's third consecutive San Diego Crew Classic Copley Cup Championship, April 8, on Mission Bay. It was Cal's fourth Copley Cup title all time. The Bears took the early lead in the race and had nearly a length by the 500-meter mark with No. 10 Yale, Oregon State, Navy, No. 4 Washington, No. 8 Penn and No. 5 Wisconsin trailing in that order. By the 1000, the Huskies had taken over second position, but Cal had five seconds on UW. Cal rowed clean through the final 1000 and finished nine seconds up. Both the Cal JV and freshman boats finished second to Washington.
Coach Steve Gladstone: Regarded as one of the premier coaches in the United States, Steve Gladstone enters his fifth year in his second stint as head coach of the Golden Bears. In 2000, Gladstone guided the Bears varsity to its second consecutive undefeated season. Cal men's crews swept the Pac-10 championships. The varsity and frosh eights won Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) national championship titles and the JV eight finished fourth. Gladstone was recognized as Pac-10 Men's Rowing Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season in 2000. During his previous tenure at Cal from 1973-80, Gladstone guided the Bears to three undefeated dual-race seasons, an IRA title, and a Pac-10 championship. Gladstone served as the Director of Rowing Operations at Brown University from 1981-94. During his time at Brown, Gladstone's crews amassed four Eastern Sprints championships, five IRA championships and two National Collegiate Rowing championship titles. With a total of eight IRA Varsity Challenge Cup titles to his credit, Gladstone currently ranks second in all-time varsity championships behind only Charles "Pop" Courtney, who won 11 titles at Cornell between 1901 and 1915.
USRowing's Coaches Poll : The Cal men's varsity eight received 11 of 13 first place votes in USRowing's Preseason Coaches poll released March 29, 2001 and enter the season ranked No. 1. The first regular season poll will be released April 11.
Team (1st-Place Votes) Points
1. California (11) 258
2. Brown University (1) 245
3. Princeton University (1) 218
4. University of Washington 205
5. University of Wisconsin 199
6. Harvard University 194
7. Northeastern University 188
8. University of Pennsylvania 170
9. Dartmouth College 153
10. Yale University 135
11. Cornell University 130
12. Temple University 99
13. Dowling College 88
14. Syracuse University 78
15. U.S. Naval Academy 73
16. Oregon State University 58
17. Boston University 51
18. Columbia University 44
19. Rutgers University 36
20. University of Michigan 32
