Cal Women's Rowing places 6th at NCAA Championships
Discover more from Write For California
Cal Women's Rowing places 6th at NCAA Championships
Also a quick recap of Cal Tennis in NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments
UPDATE from Sunday -
Cal advanced just one of three boats to the Grand Final (A-Final) on Sunday - Varsity 8.
Cal Varsity Eights ended up placing 4th.
Official times:
1. Texas - 6:10.73 2. Stanford - 6:15.43 3. Princeton - 6:17.70 4. California - 6:18.78 5. Washington - 6:19.16 6. Brown - 6:26.59
2V8 only made the B-Final and placed 3rd there (9th overall)
Official times:
1. Brown - 6:29.34 2. Ohio State - 6:30.50 3. California - 6:35.77 4. SMU - 6:35.73 5. Penn - 6:36.74 6. Michigan - 6:42.78
Varsity 4 won the B-Final for 7th overall.
Official results:
1. California - 7:16.23 2. Virginia - 7:16.52 3. Rutgers - 7:18.70 4. Yale - 7:19.66 5. Michigan - 7:20.52 6. USC - 7:22.25
When all the points were counted, Cal finished 6th overall.
Texas, helmed by former Cal Women’s Rowing Head Coach Dave O’Neill repeated as NCAA champs. They tied with Stanford in points but got the tiebreaker via the V8+ win.
The IRA Championship for Men’s Rowing next weekend, particularly the Varsity Eights championship race on Sunday morning, is the bigger, more significant moment because Cal has a fairly good shot at winning that 100th team national championship then. Golden Bears will also almost surely win a couple of individual titles from NCAA Outdoor Track and Field later.
Before we get to those, Cal women’s rowing is racing at the NCAA Rowing Championships this weekend from Sarasota, Florida. Cal is one of 22 teams there, but the 2018 NCAA champs are not expected to challenge Texas and Stanford for the team title this year.
Cal Bears will look to beat their rankings slightly and qualify all three boats for the A-Finals (Top-8) on Sunday. Cal’s Varsity Eights (V8) is ranked 10th in the country. The Second Varsity Eights (2V8) is ranked 7th. The Varsity Fours (V4) are ranked 11th. There is typically a + afterward to indicate that these are the heavyweight races. Lightweight rowing is just a club sport at Cal.
The NCAA team title is awarded to the team with the highest accumulated points across the three races. V8 does count more than the other two as both the doubled-point event as well as the tiebreaker.
All three boats do advance to Saturday’s semifinals (top-16 boats) although it is somewhat concerning that the Bears only placed 2nd in both V8 and 2V8 and had to win the repechage in V4 to get there.
Varsity Eights (V8+)
1. Princeton - 6:09.12
2. California - 6:12.46
3. Michigan - 6:18.07
4. Duke - 6:31.55
5. Gonzaga - 6:39.22
2nd Varsity Eights
1. Princeton - 6:12.01
2. California - 6:16.85
3. Ohio State - 6:19.86
4. Rutgers - 6:27.14
5. Gonzaga - 6:58.52
Varsity Fours
Cal V4 only placed 3rd and had to race in the afternoon repechage.
1. Princeton - 6:45.44
2. Brown - 7:00.28
3. California - 7:02.44
4. Oregon State - 7:18.10
5. Jacksonville - 7:33.94
6. Boston - 7:45.55
Bears did win the repechage to qualify all three boats to the A/B semifinals.
NCAA does stream these races for free on their website. Results and the updated times (since the weather does often play havoc) are listed here.
Cal will be racing in
V8 semifinal 1 against Texas, Brown, Ohio State, Penn, and SMU. 5:36 AM PT
2V8 semifinal 1 against Brown, Washington, Texas, Princeton, and Penn. 6:24 AM PT
V4 semifinal 2 against Ohio State, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, and USC. 7:24 AM PT
[Corrected from the original version] A top-2 top-3 finish is necessary to advance to Sunday’s Grand Final (A-Final). The 3rd and 4th place boats will race in the B-Finals. The rest of the boats will go to the Petit Final (B-Final). Team points are awarded to both A and B Finalists.
ROW ON YOU BEARS!
Cal in NCAA Tennis Championships
In other Cal in NCAA news, 11th-seed Cal Women’s Tennis lost to 6th-seed NC State in the recently rebranded “Super Regional” round. Before this year, the top-16 teams all compete at the designated NCAA Championship site. This year, the higher seeds got to host those matches in the typical “Sweet Sixteen” phase of the NCAA Team Championships.
Cal went to NC State and lost 4-0, ending the season for the team.
Junior Haley Giavara (No.63 in singles ranking) and freshman Jessica Alsola (No.71st in singles ranking) did make the NCAA Singles Championship field to compete in the 64-deep tournament.
Cal’s No.1 singles player Giavara defeated OK State’s Lisa Marie Rioux 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round.
Cal’s freshman sensation Jessica Alsola got the much tougher draw. While she won the first set 6-4 over No.9 Chloe Beck of Duke, her season ended with a 6-4, 4-6, 4-6 loss.
Haley Giavara won her round-of-32 victory when Layne Sleeth of Oklahoma. retired while trailing 6-4, 1-0.
Giavara’s run was ended by Pepperdine’s Lisa Zaar. Zaar won 7-5, 6-2. In Cal’s two regular season dual wins over Pepperdine, Giavara as Cal’s No.1 did not face Zaar who was Waves’s No.2 player.
On the men’s side, Cal did not qualify for the NCAA tournament as a team.
Senior Yuta Kikuchi and freshman Carl Emil Overbeck did make the 32-team deep NCAA doubles tournament. They won their first match by a 4-6, 7-6, 10-7 (3rd-set tiebreaker) result over a Middle Tennessee pair.
But fell to a VCU pair by a 7-6(5), 6-4 result.
GO BEARS!
Cal Women's Rowing places 6th at NCAA Championships
Oops, I got the way to advance to the A or B Final incorrect in the original post.
Just a top-3 is necessary to advance.
Cal V8 finishes 3rd (behind Texas and Brown) to advance to the A-Final.
Cal 2V8 finished 5th to the B-Final.
V4 semifinal is delayed due to weather.
Row on you bears!
Small note, 4+/4- refers to coxed and coxless fours (sweep) events, not heavy-/lightweight. (4x is the quad, which is sculled.)