No.1 Cal Men's Rowing repeats as IRA National Champions

Cal Athletics' oldest program wins its 19th National Championship with an undefeated season

California Golden Bears caps a dominant, undefeated season on Sunday morning from Mercer Lake in New Jersey. The 2022 IRA National Champion repeats as the 2023 National Champion behind a wire-to-wire victory over rival Washington. For 8 of the 9 student-athletes in Cal Men’s Rowing’s top boat, this is their second straight national championship title.

Congratulations to:

Coxswain - Luca Vieira
Stroke - Iwan Hadfield
7 - Angus Dawson
6 - Tim Roth
5 - Ollie Maclean
4 - Gennaro di Mauro
3 - Gus Rodriguez
2 - Frederik Breuer
Bow - Campbell Crouch

While Gennaro di Mauro (Italy) and Angus Dawson (Australia) were also 2020 Tokyo “Calympians”, more of this special group should be racing for their country in the Paris 2024 Games, if not earning medals.

Graduate transfer Gus Rodriguez and Ollie Maclean, who went to the delayed Tokyo Olympics as an alternate for New Zealand, are listed as graduate students. Angus Dawson and Campbell Crouch are seniors (but may have eligibility still). Nonetheless, more than half of this boat should be back for a three-peat in 2024, unless they opt to take a year off to train with their respective national team.

This is Cal’s 19th National Title in program history and the second one under head coach Scott Frandsen. Before last year, Cal’s previous national title was in 2016. Cal’s last repeat title was part of a four-peat from 1999 to 2002. Men’s Rowing is Cal’s second most-successful program behind only Rugby. The repeat national championships also keep Men’s Rowing at three titles ahead of Men’s Water Polo, which also achieved a repeat national championship in the past two school years.

Cal Athletics can now claim 103 Team National Championships in its long history. For the past two school years, they have added three national titles each from Men’s Water Polo, Men’s Swimming and Diving, and now Men’s Rowing all winning back-to-back championships.

Water is Bear Territory!

Cal fans can watch the exciting 5.5 minutes long race via the IRA Stream/Replay below.

The Varsity 8+ race starts at the 2:15:04 mark (or via this link). Cal fans can also fast-forward to the end for the trophy ceremony.

In the only race that mattered for the “Men’s Rowing National Championship”, Cal bested west-coast rival Washington for the second consecutive day. Golden Bears led the tight race wire-to-wire, turning a 3-4 seat lead at the 1000 meter (halfway) mark to a 6-seat win at the finish line. Princeton finished 3rd behind Washington.

1. California - 05:31.716

2. Washington - 05:32.960

3. Princeton - 05:34.882

4. Yale - 05:36.954

5. Syracuse - 05:38.172

6. Northeastern - 05:43.180

https://twitter.com/CalMRowing/status/1665366453095104512

In addition to the Varsity Eight boat repeating as national champions, Cal Men's Rowing displayed its depth in sweeping all of the other categories as well to take the Ten Eyck Trophy, based on the total points from the three Eights races.

First of all, Cal Varsity Four won on Saturday to win that national championship for only the 5th time in program history, and 1st since 2009.

4V+
Coxswain - Savannah Adamo
4 - Bret Holt
3 - Harry Manton
2 - Henry Furrer
1 - Joshua Anderson

California Rowing

California Rowing on Instagram: “The V4 got the first trophy 🏆 of the weekend for the Bears…three more to go! #GoBears”

June 3, 2023

On Sunday morning, Cal's 2nd ranked 3V8+ boat pulled off a mild upset in edging Harvard for the 3V8+ national title. Cal finished 2nd behind Washington in the semifinal on Saturday, but the Golden Bears were able to cross the finish line when it mattered the most.

3V8+
Coxswain - Ethan Nghiem
Stroke - Dan Bradbery
7 - Keith Ryan
6 - Alex Baroni
5 - Matthew Waddell
4 - Thomas Heerding
3 - Luciano Andreuccetti
2 - Tyler Kurth
Bow - Pablo Moreno

Following the 3V8+ boat's triumph, Cal's No.1 ranked 2V8+ had an absolutely dominant showing in their grand final. Golden Bears jumped out to a big lead and led by a boat length for the bulk of the 2000m race. Elliott Kemp, a recent recipient of a postgraduate scholarship who will study neuroscience at Oxford, was a member of the V8+ winning team last year.

2V8+
Coxswain - Iliad Izadi
Stroke - Tommy Barrell
7 - Elliott Kemp
6 - Tobias Kristensen
5 - Fred Roper
4 - Balthasar Issa
3 - Matthew Gallagher
2 - Daton Wolfaardt
Bow - Wilson Morton

Congratulations to all of the Cal national champions!

ROW ON YOU BEARS!