GOLD RIVER, Calif. – Cal’s varsity eight narrowly missed an NCAA title as Ohio State slipped past the Bears by less than a half second, pushing Cal to a second-place team finish at the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships Sunday in Gold River, Calif. The varsity eight finished second, while the second eight finished fifth and the varsity four finished eighth in their respective finals.
“Every boat rowed really hard. If any boat would've finished a boat lower, we wouldn't have finished second. It was a complete team effort. It was also just really hard rowing, and really great racing,” said head coach Al Acosta. “The team did a great job. They had their best races as their last race, and that's what you can hope for. When it really mattered, everybody came through.”
The Bears totaled 114 team points to finish second in the final NCAA team standings for the third consecutive year, just 12 points shy of National Champion Ohio State (126 points). Brown (112) placed third and Washington (110) finished fourth.
Cal has turned in a top three team finish at the NCAA Championships eight years in a row, and 10 times in the last 11 seasons.
The varsity eight lost a heartbreaker that saw the Bears take the lead in the final few hundred meters in a neck-and-neck duel with Ohio State. While the Buckeyes led at each split, the race was tight from the get-go. At the 500-meter mark, Ohio State led Cal by mere milliseconds, 1:32.522 – 1:32.526. The trend continued throughout the race, and Cal never fell behind by more than a second. The Bears battled back down the stretch as the Buckeyes led by four seats, and entering the last 500 meters, Cal pulled into the lead. Just seconds away from the finish line, Ohio State surged to regain the lead and hold on to it for good, beating Cal by less than half a second at 06:18.144 – 06:18.608. Both crews led the rest of the pack by open water, with third-place Virginia clocking in nearly six seconds later at 06:24.3.
“I couldn't be more pleased with the effort of our team today,” Acosta said. “All three boats had some really hard races. Congratulations to Ohio State. They are a really tough team and they are on a roll.
“Each boat held up their end of the bargain today and then some,” Acosta continued. “The varsity eight race was one for the ages. We had the lead for a brief spell and then came charging back late in the second 1000. To row a race like that not only says a lot about the fitness and skill of the rowers, but more importantly we all saw how much the team wanted to pull for each other. To see two boats so far ahead of the rest of the field is a testament to what a battle it was. Overall, this has been an amazing season and I could not be more pleased and thankful for how the team trained, trusted, and raced for each other all year long.”
“This morning we went out there and were ready for our best race, and we were just hoping that was going to be good enough. It was a half a seat from good enough, but it was the best race we could’ve done and I’m really proud of our team,” said senior coxswain Lindsay Meltz. “It was definitely the best race I’ve ever been in. It was the closest, it was the toughest and the most exciting. It was the closest I’ve ever been to winning a National Championship and really put the cherry on top of my career.”
The second eight added 36 points to Cal’s team total with a fifth-place finish in the Grand Final at 06:35.1. Brown won the event at 06:25, followed by Ohio State at 06:27.1.
Cal’s varsity four, who competed in the Petite Final, started the morning off for the Bears with a strong second-place finish in their race and eighth-place finish overall at 07:28.3. Washington State won the Petite Final at 07:24.4 after leading through each segment. Though the Cougs pulled away early on, the Bears battled Pac-12 rival Stanford for the runner-up spot in the first 500 meters until solidifying their position by the 1000-meter mark.
Sunday’s championships marked the end of Acosta’s first year at the helm of the Golden Bears, which saw Cal earn its 17th consecutive NCAA Championships bid as the varsity eight went undefeated until Sunday’s race. Cal swept the Pac-12 awards, as Acosta was tabbed the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, junior Kendall Chase was Athlete of the Year and freshman Mia Croonquist was Newcomer of the Year.
“You want the crew to progress and you want them to get better and better and better, and this was it. To see everybody race as hard as they did, and do it for their team, that's the highlight of the year,” Acosta said.
Stay connected with the Bears in the offseason on the team’s official Twitter handle, @CalWCrew.
Varsity Eight Grand Final
Results: 1. Ohio State (06:18.1), 2. California (06:18.6), 3. Virginia (06:24.3), 4. Texas (06:27.2), 5. Stanford (06:28), 6. Washington (06:28.5)
Cal lineup: Lindsay Meltz (cox), Kendall Chase (8), Ingvild Roenningen (7), Caileigh Filmer (6), Mia Croonquist (5), Jacinta Edmunds (4), Dorothee Beckendorff (3), Inger Kavlie (2), Rowan McKellar (1)
Second Varsity Eight Grand Final
Results: 1. Brown (06:26), 2. Ohio State (06:27.1), 3. Washington (06:32.1), 4. Yale (06:34.8), 5. California (06:35.1), 6. Washington State (06:39.7)
Cal lineup: Hannah Christopher (cox), Sarah Schwartz (8), Charlotte Siering (7), Hunter Deuel (6), Maddie Wolf (5), Charlotte Passot (4), Stephanie Kraemer (3), Katie De Haas (2), Danielle Struck (1)
Varsity Four Petite Final
Results: 1. Washington State (07:24.4), 2. California (07:28.3), 3. Stanford (07:29.5), 4. Michigan (07:30.3), 5. Texas (07:32.6), 6. Notre Dame (07:32.7)
Cal lineup: Hannah Freeman (cox), Roisin Duffy (4), Kendall Ritter (3), Hailey Drangsholt (2), Lisa Perrine (1)
