Cal Men's Rowing, Mykolas Alekna (Men's Discus), and Skyler Magula (Men's Pole Vault) are Pac-12 champions

And quick recaps of the recent postseason runs by Cal Tennis, Golf, Women's Water Polo, Beach Volleyball, and Rugby

While graduation ceremonies may be happening on campus, we are still about a month away from the official end of the school year for Cal Athletics. While Cal student-athletes do not need to be national champion contenders to deserve our attention, Golden Bears will have some national title favorites then, as evident by the wins at Pac-12 Championships this past weekend.

Pac-12 Champs!

While Cal Men’s Rowing will likely get some challenge from the East (Yale, possibly Brown), the defending IRA national champion demonstrated that they are the best crew in the West by repeating as Pac-12 champions. The Varsity 8+ boat (which is the only boat that matters for the most important national championship title at the IRA) won with open water over Washington and Stanford.

V8+
1. Cal – 5:34.673
2. Washington – 5:38.511
3. Stanford – 5:39.025
4. Oregon State – 6:00.363

Cal also won in 2nd Varsity 8, Freshman 8, and Varsity 4. Only the 3rd Varsity 8 boat, who finished 2nd to Washington, did not cross the finish line first.

https://twitter.com/CalMRowing/status/1657836488367935488?cxt=HHwWgMDQjZXg6IEuAAAA

While the entire Varsity 8+ boat roster that won the IRA national championship last year was back, Cal opted to insert graduate transfer Gus Rodriguez into the top boat while reinforcing the 2nd Varsity 8+ boat with the addition of Elliott Kemp.

The V8+ lineup for Cal this season has consistently been:
Coxswain - Luca Vieira
Stroke - Iwan Hadfield
7 – Gus Rodriguez
6 - Tim Roth
5 - Ollie Maclean
4 - Gennaro di Mauro
3 – Angus Dawson
2 - Frederik Breuer
Bow - Campbell Crouch

I do not anticipate any lineup change in the next three weeks as Cal looks to drop time before the IRA in Mercer Lake, New Jersey on June 2-4.

Also competing for the Pac-12 crown this weekend was Cal Track and Field. Golden Bears claimed two individual Pac-12 titles.

Senior Skyler Magula has really improved in his final season. Qualified for the Pac-12 title meet for the first time in his career, Magula cleared the bar at 5.47m (17-11.25) to win the men’s pole vault event. Teammate sophomore Tyler Burns placed 3rd with a successful clearance of a height of 5.37m (17-7.25).

https://twitter.com/CalTFXC/status/1657925653285728258?cxt=HHwWhMDTwZ-mkYIuAAAA

Much less shocking was the Pac-12 title by sophomore Mykolas Alekna in discus. Alekna, who set a new collegiate record at the Big Meet this year, had no real competition in repeating as Pac-12 champion.

https://twitter.com/CalTFXC/status/1657840077706506240?cxt=HHwWgMDR4Yux6oEuAAAA

Check out Mykolas Alekna’s Pac-12 winning throw below. The discus traveled 70.40m (230-11) to break his own meet record set on his first throw of this meet.

https://twitter.com/CalTFXC/status/1657841427156701184?cxt=HHwWgMDQ-dH_6oEuAAAA

Alekna will look to improve upon his NCAA 2nd place finish from last year. The next meet for the Cal student-athletes who qualified (the full list will be announced soon) is the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on May 24-27.

Other Top-3 finishers in the Pac

No.7 Cal Women’s Crew finished 3rd behind Stanford and Washington both as a team and in the races that will matter for the NCAA title (V8+, 2V8+, and 4V+).

V8+
1. Stanford - 06:08.602
2. Washington - 06:13.882
3. California - 06:20.778
4. USC - 06:26.944
5. Oregon St - 06:29.460
6. Washington St - 06:32.410
7. UCLA - 06:34.230
 
2V8+
1. Washington - 06:18.247
2. Stanford - 06:20.817
3. California - 06:25.123
4. Oregon St - 06:34.801
5. USC - 06:38.339
6. UCLA - 06:39.695
7. Washington St - 06:41.017
 
V4+
1. Stanford - 07:01.093
2. Washington - 07:12.253
3. California - 07:18.307
4. USC - 07:22.395
5. Oregon St - 07:23.485
6. Washington St. - 07:31.337
7. UCLA - 07:31.529

Cal Bears finished where they were seeded, but will look to improve on those results at the NCAA (the full field will be announced later today, Tuesday, at 3:30 PM PT).

Back to the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships, Cal finished 4th as a team for the men and 6th as a team for the women.

As mentioned previously, sophomore Tyler Burns took the Bronze in pole vault behind teammate Skyler Magula. Fellow sophomore Di’Niko Bates also took 3rd overall in 110m Hurdles. A 3rd Cal man who finished on the podium was junior Ivar Moisander who won the Bronze in hammer throw, setting also Cal’s 3rd best throw in school history.

For the Cal women, freshman Carolina Visca broke the school record in javelin, her throw of 53.91m (176-10) is good for 2nd place in the Pac. Also placing 2nd was senior Anna Purchase in women’s hammer. Purchase does have the top throw this season in college and could continue Cal’s dominance in this event even after the graduation of Camryn Rogers. However, it is always a challenge to replicate a personal best at the major meets. Golden Bears also won the Silver in 4x100m Relay. The quartet of Jada Hicks, Jordyn Grady, Makhaila Mills, and Aysha Shaheed set a new school record with a time of 43.81. Cal women also got the Bronze in pole vault with senior Amari Turner.

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ICYMI, quick recaps of Cal in playoff results

• Cal Rugby 15s fell to Navy 28-22 in the D1A National Collegiate Championship final. Golden Bears jumped out to an early 15-0 lead, but Navy used the water break after the 10th minute to regroup and cut the Cal lead to 15-14 by the half. Cal got the first try of the second half but Navy went ahead in the span of 5 minutes with tries and conversions in the 62nd and 67th minutes. Navy was able to withstood a late Cal attack in the last 10+ minutes of the match. This final really could have gone either way, but Navy was able to complete an undefeated season by earning their second win over Cal (13-4) in 2023.

• 3rd-seed Cal Women’s Water Polo (19-10) lost a tight quarterfinal match to Princeton. It was a historic win for the Tigers as they made the NCAA semifinal for the first time. Princeton was eventually defeated by USC in the semifinal and the Trojans lost to top-seed Stanford in the championship final. Princeton keeper Lindsey Lucas had a tremendous match to lead the Tigers to the historic upset over Cal. Lucas made 15 saves, including two on penalty shots. Golden Bears had to rely on many new players for offense this season and just had another scoring drought at the wrong time. Sophomore Rozanne Voorvelt scored three times to lead the Bears in their long match at Stockton for the NCAA Championships.

• Cal Beach Volleyball (29-10) ended their historic season with an NCAA Quarterfinal loss to No.1 UCLA. The 8th-seed Cal defeated 9th-seed Long Beach State 3-2 for the program’s first win at the NCAA Championships but was not able to pull off an upset over UCLA. losing 1-3. The No.3 pair of Maya Gessner and Gia Fisher was the lone Cal winner over the Bruins. Cal did get the program’s first win over USC this year, and USC eventually edged UCLA for the 2023 NCAA Beach Volleyball title.

• Cal Men’s Tennis (13-11) lost in NCAA 2nd Round at No.7 Michigan 4-0. No.29 Cal was able to defeat LSU 4-1 in the 1st Round before losing to the home team at the Ann Arbor Regional.

• Cal Women’s Tennis (12-10) lost in NCAA 1st Round to San Diego. Golden Bears narrowly lost the doubles point and then the dual 1-4 to USD. Hannah Viller Moeller at court 6 was the lone Cal point winner.

• Cal Women’s Golf placed 10th as a team at the Palm Beach Gardens NCAA Regional to end their season as only the top-5 teams would advance. Graduate transfer Annika Borrelli led the Bears by placing 19th individually.

• Cal Men’s Golf is on day 2 of 3 at the nearby Morgan Hill NCAA Regional hosted by San Jose State. We will find out by Wednesday if this talented Cal squad is able to have a breakthrough tournament as a team.